Covid testing too far in advance?

Okay, I see your concern but the current requirement is 48 hours for vaccinated travelers and what you describing looks like more than 48 hours anyway you look at it. If you got the test at midnight on Thursday, 48 hours would expire at midnight on Saturday. Thursday to Sunday is more than 48 hours so a Thursday test would be too far in advance for Sunday travel.

It would be helpful to know where you are that a test is impossible to find. Any major city in the US, if you are in the US, can administer an Antigen test well within 24 hours. The rapid PCR test has a less than 24 hour return. Either of these typically have results in under one hour. Tests are available at almost any airport with transatlantic flights.

It is rather simple, to fly to France, you must present a neg covid test which was taken within 48 hours of your departure. If you do not have the results, your air carrier will not board you.

Lance— you just have to travel a bit. My fairly large town will only test symptomatic people, so I drive 20 miles to a Walgreens or 45 to the airport where the test is $$$. This is an improvement over September 2020 when all I could find was a FedEx overnight lab that cost me hundreds. You have to go further than where you live.

Around me both CVS and Walgreens have 24 hour tests for free. Many “urgent care” centers offer 24 hour or faster tests for a fairly large cost - over $100 - but would work. Airports have 30 minute tests for more like $250. These are some avenues to look at to make sure you hit the 48 hours.

The pharmacies near me will test anyone who “lives or works in a high transmission area”. The entire US is a high transmission area.

Antigen tests are easy to get quick results on. The problem is PCR tests. Where I am to get one with fast turn around for travel is 300 and not paid by insurance. But france is not requiring the PCR so we will be doing an antigen when we go this spring and will make sure the one we get is accepted.

This group is very helpful in keeping an eye on that.

Thank you for the information everyone. My wife was able to make an appointment for us to get the antigen test at a somewhat local Walgreens. This will be the day before the flight. This takes some stress off as now we need to find testing in Paris to go to iceland and a place in iceland to get tested to come back home. Now looking forward to flying off to Paris in a week!

"This takes some stress off as now we need to find testing in Paris to go to iceland"

In Paris this will be the easiest thing you've done. Does Iceland require a PCR or an Antigen? For the Antigen tests, walk out the front door to your hotel, turn left or right. Go to the nearest pharmacie which will likely have a neon green cross outside. Nearly all of them do the antigen test (will likely be signs posted in their windows or on the door) and will have results back in 15 minutes. From the time I walked into the pharmacy in October to the time I had results, including test and wait times was less than 45 minutes.

Scope out the pharmacies near your hotel to see if they want you to have an appointment or if you can just walk in for the antigen test. If you can't tell from the signs, go in and ask the very nice pharmacist. (really, they are all so very nice!)

Awesome, thanks Pam. We will check out the pharmacies when we arrive and plan ahead and hopefully find someone that speaks some English since my French is very limited. I really appreciate the information.

My French is really pathetic. The pharmacist at the closest pharmacy to my hotel said she had very little English but truthfully (and this is the case with many) her English was excellent and extended to everything I wanted to ask her about timings! There may be several in your neighborhood that you pass on the way to the Metro, restaurants, etc so you can locate them early on in your trip. IF you are needing it on a Sunday this is the only day that might present an issue but there will be a pharmacy open on Sunday in your area.