Order your compulsory Covid Travel Testing Package for day 2 and day 8 of your quarantine.
It’s mandatory to perform two Covid-19 tests after international travel. You’re required to perform a test on or before day 2 for variant surveillance and another test on or after day 8 of your quarantine to check you do not have coronavirus.
From 15th February onwards, everyone allowed to travel to England from outside the Common Travel Area who are not travelling from a red list country must:
Please see further information on the government website. If you’re travelling to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, you’ll need to follow separate guidelines.
The Common Travel Area comprises the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. The British Overseas Territories are not included. Further information is on the government website.
A red list country is a country where travel to the UK is banned. Anyone who is arriving in England who has visited or passed through a country on the red list in the 10 days before their arrival needs to follow the UK government’s guidance.
If you’ve visited or passed through a country on the red list in the 10 days before arriving in England, please refer to the question: ‘What if I’m travelling from a ‘red list’ country.
If you haven’t visited or passed through a country on the red list in the 10 days before arriving in England, you must:
You can receive substantial fines. Please check the government website for further information.
You will be able to book your testing package through the government website. Alternatively, you can get notified when Medicspot launches its own Travel Testing Package.
Yes, before travelling to England, everyone who hasn’t visited or passed through a country on the red list in the 10 days before arriving must book and pay for a Travel Test Package, which will includes COVID-19 tests to be taken on or before day 2 and on or after day 8 of your quarantine.
When you arrive in England you must go directly to your quarantine location and not leave until 10 days have passed. You can only leave quarantine once you have both received a negative day 8 test result and passed the 10 day quarantine period. Please see further information on the government website.
You can leave quarantine early if you receive a negative test result on or after day 5 through the Test to Release programme. You can book a Test to Release test through our website.
Even if you test negative through Test to Release and finish your quarantine early, you still need to take your day 8 test.
No, even if your day 8 test is negative, you must stay in quarantine until day 10.
You can take your day 2 test any time on or before day 2 following your arrival in England. You can take your day 8 test on or after day 8.
You can collect your day 2 test on before day 2 but you can only receive your day 8 test on or after day 8. You can’t be in physical possession of your day 8 test before day 8.
Yes, you can still leave quarantine early if you receive a negative test result on or after day 5 through the Test to Release programme. You can book a Test to Release test through our website.
Even if you test negative through Test to Release and finish your quarantine early, you still need to take your day 8 test.
Yes, even if you test negative through Test to Release and finish your quarantine early, you still need to take your day 8 test.
If your day 2 or 8 test results are positive then you must quarantine for an additional 10 days from the day you took the test – further advice will be provided with your test results.
If your test shows that you have a variant of coronavirus known as a ‘variant of concern’ you will get an additional call and anyone you have been in contact with will be asked to be tested.
Please see the government website for more information.
There is a requirement by the UK government to conduct genomic sequencing on all positive test results from day 2 tests. This is a very expensive process so increases the overall cost of the testing package.
You can find more information on the passenger locator form on the government website.
When you arrive in England you must go straight to the place where you intend to quarantine. Only use public transport if you have no other options. Do not travel by public transport if you have any COVID-19 symptoms. Please see the government website for further details.
Yes, you are permitted to leave your quarantine location to collect or conduct your COVID-19 test but you are required to return to your quarantine location as soon as this is complete.
For full details of quarantine requirements, please see the government website.
By Dr Adam Abbs
Medicspot is a government-approved provider of private coronavirus testing.
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