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Covid testing tomorrow afternoon - fingers crossed!

Posted by (North of the Helcaraxë) on

I did an at-home test today in my apartment in Rome and it came out negative. I have an online COVID test scheduled with iHealth tomorrow afternoon. I am hoping it will be negative so I can get onto the airplane. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

As an aside - I chose to NOT purchase travel insurance; a strategy I do not recommend for the average traveler. I am old and retired. My trip length was to be three months. The cost to insure my trip for COVID related concerns was actually more than my entire trip as I had to insure the entire trip, not just get COVID insurance. Whatever algorithm the insurance companies use (and I checked with several) at my age and with the length of my trip, insurance was just not a wise investment.

So, I dug into my savings and set monies aside for a possible two week stay should I test positive. If I have to use it, so be it. If I don't have to use it, I will just apply it forward to my next trip to Rome.

Of more concern to me are the Schengen Visa rules. I am staying 87 days out of the 90 I am allowed. Should I test positive tomorrow, I will need to apply for an emergency visa here in Italy. It is complicated and I don't have answers for anyone, but I do know that I can at least apply and not mess up my Schengen visa status.

Cheers!

Posted by
8952 posts

I think the odds are quite high that if you are negative today, you will be negative tomorrow. Good luck!

Posted by
2739 posts

Best of luck. Do you have health insurance coverage?

Posted by
128 posts

@Alan My retirement insurance covers international health concerns. This is not Medicare coverage. If you only have Medicare, be careful as it does not cover out of the United States health issues. Once again, it is complicated. I would have to be denied Medicare, then my retirement insurance would kick in.

Posted by
220 posts

Wishing you all the best. We are certainly all in the same boat with this. I don't think I've been this nervous about a test since peeing on a stick my Freshman year of college! Please let us know the good news so we can "woo-hoo" you tomorrow!

Posted by
71 posts

Dmae
We are on Medicare and added a supplement coverage with Premera and Guess what they include a foreign travel coverage even though Medicare does not. My point is travelers should check any other plans or travel cars (evac coverage) etc. know the coverages you already have.

Posted by
135 posts

Best of luck tomorrow, Dmae! Sounds like you should be ok by testing negative today. We are scheduled to go to Italy the first 2 weeks of October. I hope the Covid testing requirement to re-enter the US is lifted by then, but who knows! If it is not lifted, we will be in the same stressful boat as everyone else. We fly out on a Monday morning, but will be spending our last 5 days in Rome so there should be a pharmacy open on Sunday where we can be tested. We may take the BinaxNow proctored tests with us and use those instead...we will decide when it gets closer to our trip.
Again, good luck and safe travels!

Posted by
128 posts

The proctored iHealth Covid test came back negative. I have received my negative results via email and uploaded it to Delta. That step takes some time, apparently. I filled out my government 'attestation' form and that was simple.

The iHealth proctored test was simple. I was already familiar with the testing procedure, so it was just a matter of keeping the camera on the test card for the 15 minutes.

I will make a separate post about iHealth and my experience so others can find it more easily.

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