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Covid Testing for Family of 5 in UK - Best/Most Efficient Option?

Posted by on

Hi! Reaching out for help as this last issue for our trip in two weeks is driving me crazy! We are a family of 5, traveling to England in two weeks. Our last few days will be spent in London and I'm trying to figure out how to get us tested for Covid before we fly out. I've looked into a couple of options that other folks have mentioned - specifically testing at the airport, testing at St. Pancras, testing with Boots as a group, or testing ourselves with a Binax proctored test. The airport seems too risky - I don't want to leave the testing until the last minute. I've looked at St. Pancras and there are no test times available for our preferred day (20JUN). We're partially signed up with Boots, but turns out they will not do group testing for a rapid LFT - so we'd have to make 5 separate appointments, spanning 75 minutes! I'm leaning towards the Binax proctored test - but two of my minor children do not have email addresses - so how will they be able to test and receive the results? This seems way too complicated - would appreciate any advice, especially from families who have gone through it recently.

Thanks!
Becky

Posted by
6104 posts

You can add the kids as minors to your account on eMed/NAVICA app

Each of you has to test separately so there’s not much difference time wise between the proctored test and the 75 min worth of appts
Those appts are not going to take 15 min each, a few min each and then you all wait for results.

Unless you have 5 devices to test everyone concurrently you are looking at 15-30 min for each proctored test

Posted by
9614 posts

You can count on it taking an hour and 15 minutes to two hours to get you all tested, no matter whether you go to a pharmacy or do proctored online testing.

With the proctored online testing, you have the additional concern of whether you have data connectivity -- or good enough Wifi at your lodging.

Posted by
8399 posts

We used Randox testing by Waterloo Station. They were set up to test several people at the same time.

Posted by
531 posts

Also not wanting to wait until getting to LHR the evening before flight…..

Considering Paddington/Express-test; St. Pancras/ Collinson; or Waterloo/Randox….for LFT Antigen ….anyone have any thoughts on these sites? We are staying near Stratton St.

Posted by
6 posts

Thanks, everyone! We've gone ahead with the emed route - the kits arrived today and it seemed easy enough to set up the Navica apps. We will have three phones and two ipads, so I'm hoping that condenses our testing time a bit. Will let you know how it goes!

Posted by
14 posts

I have an additional question I haven't seen addressed regarding family testing. We are going to Ireland at end of June and there are three in our group. One of us is traveling with a university group and two of us are taking a RS tour . We will come together at the end and spend two days together before we return to the US. What happens if one of us tests positive and the other two are negative? Do we all have to quarentine? Do the negatives have to quarentine separately from the positives? Otherwise, I could see a scenario where we infect each other and extended our quarentine time. I understand at the end of 10 days, the positive person could get a certificates of recovery but does that mean the negative people have to re do their testing? Since the requirement is 1. A negative test 24 hours within flight departure or 2. A positive dated test plus 10 days and a certificate of recovery, it seems the others would have to retest. If there is anyone out there that has been in this situation, what did you do? I'm trying to develop a plan for all possible scenarios! Thanks !

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