Visitors Must Be Approved by the Cat Wall Art
Nosotros road tested the BinaxNOW, Ellume COVID-19, Cue, and Detect home tests to see how they really fare while traveling.
share this article
When the CDC issued new guidance regarding its COVID testing requirement for international travel, effective Dec six, 2021, many U.Southward. travelers who were already away had to scramble to exercise a COVID test within a agenda day of coming home. The new rules shorten the testing flow from iii days to 1 and apply to all travelers—vaccinated or not—ages two and up.
Per the CDC: "At this time all air passengers, ii years or older, traveling to the U.South., regardless of vaccination or antibody status, are required to provide a negative COVID-19 viral test effect or documentation of recovery unless exempted."
That means all travelers entering the U.Southward. must provide proof of a negative COVID examination (PCR, antigen, or approved dwelling tests or cocky-tests) taken within one 24-hour interval before travel.
Some countries, like Iceland and Kingdom of denmark, make information technology very easy and affordable (in some cases, free!) to get a same-day test result, but that's not the standard around the world.
Until it is, bringing a set of COVID-xix home or self-tests offers the promise of less hassle. And as of January 15, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration is requiring insurance companies and grouping health plans to encompass the cost of calm COVID-19 tests, which means they will be eligible for reimbursement through your private wellness coverage if you take it.
At that place are some potential hiccups that travelers should exist aware of earlier they buy and pack these tests (see below for our full reviews).
To come across the CDC requirements, the tests can exist cocky-administered every bit long every bit they meet these criteria:
- The examination must be a SARS-CoV-two viral test (nucleic acid amplification examination [NAAT] or antigen test) with Emergency Utilize Say-so (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
- The testing must include a telehealth video call during which someone authorized by the manufacturer supervises the testing procedure in real time. (Note that some FDA-authorized cocky-tests that include a telehealth service may require a prescription, co-ordinate to the CDC.)
- The telehealth provider must upshot a report confirming the patient'south identity, the name of the laboratory or healthcare entity, the type of test, and the specimen drove engagement.
- Airlines and U.S. officials at ports of entry must be able to review and confirm your identity and paper or digital documents with your examination results.
For those who would adopt to get tested in the destination, numerous airlines as well as international hotels, including in Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Caribbean, take introduced testing options and resource to help Americans fulfill the CDC testing requirement abroad.
Rather pack a cocky-test? The CDC cautions that some countries may have rules or restrictions in place regarding the importation of COVID-19 test kits that are not authorized or registered there. "Travelers who are considering bringing a U.S.-authorized test with them for use exterior of the United states of america should contact government at their destination for information before they travel," the CDC advises.
At-dwelling COVID tests approved for international travel
So, what are the options for test kits for those who would like to endeavour bringing i along? We tested the following COVID-19 test kits that meet the CDC requirements and offer the self-examination option, produce results without a laboratory, and include a telehealth service.
BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Dwelling house Test
Purchase now: $150 for a pack of six, eMed.com
The BinaxNOW COVID-nineteen home test is one of the few tests on the market place with FDA emergency use authorization that does not require the user to transport a sample to a lab. Information technology'southward a rapid antigen self-test designed to find both asymptomatic and symptomatic COVID-19. Information technology tin can be used for children as young as 4 when the sample is collected past an adult—those 15 and older can collect their ain sample.
BinaxNOW was developed past Abbott, a health and medical diagnostics company. A trained telehealth professional person guides users through the at-abode self-test during a video call via eMed.com, which will also deliver their COVID-19 examination results to their email. The standard kit comes with one nasal swab—the technique for sample collection is less invasive than the very deep nasal swab sample collection we've all heard horror stories well-nigh (if non endured ourselves).
"It was super easy," says Bryan Kinkade, Distant's publisher, who used the BinaxNOW home tests for himself and his family for a trip to Costa Rica in spring 2021. His one piece of advice is to make sure to take "a solid Wi-Fi connection" then that you tin download the app and conduct the telehealth video phone call. "They walk you through the entire process," he says, remarking that the test is very like to a pregnancy examination—after 15 minutes or so the results pop upwards on the reader. "The healthcare provider comes back on photographic camera to verify the results that y'all concur upward to the photographic camera, so you tin can instantly meet [your] results in the app."
After getting his results, he uploaded them straight into the United Airlines app to bank check in for the flying back to the United States. "I repeated the process with my wife and son, and 45 minutes after we started, my son was walking back to the beach for an afternoon surf. We were down there with some friends who were stressed out all week hoping that the local clinic would be open, that at that place wouldn't be a line or whatsoever issues getting results back chop-chop."
Ellume COVID-xix Home Test with Azova
Voluntary Call back Notice: On Oct 1, 2021, Ellume issued a voluntary recall of specific lots of its Ellume COVID-19 Home Examination, due to an "increased chance" that tests may provide an incorrect positive result (as well known equally a false positive). In a condom advice on Oct five, 2021 , the U.South. Food and Drug Assistants (FDA) confirmed this event was "due to a recently identified manufacturing issue" and that "negative results do non appear to be affected past the manufacturing consequence." To see if your Ellume COVID-nineteen Domicile Exam is included in the product recollect, compare the lot number on the exam carton to the lot numbers on Ellume's website . If y'all accept unused tests from an affected lot, you can asking a product replacement via ellumecovidtest.com/return .
Buy now: Due to supply constraints, Ellume COVID-19 Home tests are currently but available at your local pharmacy. Book a video observation via azova.com
Though BinaxNOW has received a bit more attending, Australia-based digital diagnostics company Ellume was really the commencement to market place with a COVID-nineteen home test, and it partnered with Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines to give passengers easy access to home antigen tests. (Ane 15-minute test with a video ascertainment by Azova, an online healthcare provider, will give results for both asymptomatic and symptomatic cases, for ages two and up.) How were they so speedy? Dr. Sean Parsons, Ellume'southward CEO and founder, had been working on getting a dwelling flu test to market since 2010 and was able to pivot—the buzzword of 2020—chop-chop to get approval on a COVID test. "The FDA knew all about our technology, from the work we'd been doing [on the influenza test]," Parsons told Distant. "We feel as if we're on the cusp—nosotros're just about in that location. Equally a company, we're already looking to combine our flu avails with our COVID avails to make a combined COVID-influenza test, which is the natural progression. It'due south coming!"
Until then, international travelers can pack one test kit for every family member over the historic period of two and—every bit long as the Wi-Fi is decent and a video-call engagement is scheduled a week out—they tin take the Ellume exam anywhere in the globe. The kit has an piece of cake-to-utilize smartphone app that asks you to register the bio basics of the patient (name, age, address), then it serves upwards a mandatory how-to video you can't fast-forrad through (a bit annoying on the quaternary go, merely understandably necessary). Afterwards the step-by-pace walkthrough, you swab each nostril, dip the swab in fluid, and put the fluid reader near your telephone for fifteen minutes. Cablegram goes off, and yous accept your results, which are also emailed to you.
A friendly reminder that for all antigen tests, faux positives are possible. (My 2-year-old got one and prompted a fair bit of panic and a follow-upward PCR test at a nearby clinic.) "A false positive is really frustrating and worrying and anxiety provoking; a false negative is genuinely dangerous. That's the tradeoff," says Parsons. "So we said nosotros'll hunt the positives pretty hard. Equally a consequence, we had the best clinical performance of all the rapid tests out on the market place. We remember that's still very important for when y'all go traveling. If you accept our test and information technology's negative, you can be pretty darn certain that you're negative." —Laura Dannen Redman
Cue COVID-nineteen Test for Domicile or OTC Use
Buy now: $xc per month for a Cue+ Complete membership
On March 5, 2021, Cue Health received Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the FDA to sell its lab-quality molecular COVID examination over the counter. Information technology'south a nucleic acrid amplification examination that returns rapid results—the whole process takes less than xx minutes—but PCR-level accuracy. Think of this as a home COVID-test investment for frequent travel, in-person meetings, or business organization travel; companies like Google and the NBA have sent Cue packages home to employees, and U.S. schools have been using them to test grades Thou–12.
At a minimum, you would accept to buy the Cue Reader—a small box nearly the size of a stack of Post-It notes—and a pack of iii or 10 individual-use nasal swab tests. You plug in the reader to accuse, and while y'all do that, download the Cue Health app (available on iOS and Android). When the app is fully installed, you lot follow information technology pace by step: Insert a cartridge to "warm upwardly" in the reader, do a self-nasal swab, and and then insert the swab into the cartridge. Nigh 20 minutes later, the results come on your phone—you can also impress them off.
Results are incredibly reliable—according to Cue, an independent study past Mayo Clinic, Cue's COVID-nineteen test matched central lab results with 97.8 per centum accurateness—but they'll toll ya: The Cue Reader on its own is $249; a pack of iii swab tests is $225. To access the CDC-compliant supervised testing for international travel, you lot have to sign up for a Cue+ Consummate membership ($90 per month), which also includes 20 tests per twelvemonth; a discounted Cue Reader ($149); twenty percent off additional COVID-19 tests, plus free aforementioned-day delivery in select markets; 24/vii admission to board-certified doctors; e-prescriptions and prescription renewals; and physician-ordered lab tests.
Though the price is high, these accept been the best tests I've used in the past six months, including on my children (ages two and four). I have yet to use them abroad but plan to and will report back on the ease of the telehealth engagement. —L.D.R.
Observe Covid-19 Test
Purchase now: $75 for starter kit (ane test and 1 hub), $49 for each additional examination, and $20 for a video observation session voucher to certify results for travel, notice.com
On December fifteen, 2021, Detect, Inc. launched its at-habitation molecular COVID tests a uthorized by FDA EUA for over-the-counter dwelling house use by people ages ii and up. While Detect takes longer (nearly an hour) than many other at-habitation tests I've used, it delivers results with PCR-level accuracy while withal beingness faster than waiting 24 hours to days for results from a lab.
Similar Cue, this testing organisation also requires the purchase of a small device—the Notice Hub—to process the results from a single-use nasal swab . To start, y'all must download the Detect App (bachelor on iOS and Android) and follow the uncomplicated stride-past-step video instructions. After you lot plug in the computer-mouse-size Hub, you tin can swab your nose and so swirl the swab in a liquid-filled test tube. You then place the test tube in the Hub to process for 55 minutes. In one case that fourth dimension has elapsed, yous add a split up dropper of liquid into the test reader and push the test tube into the reader, which will give you results within 10 minutes. If yous see a single line near the "2" on the reader, your results are negative for COVID-19. If y'all run across ii lines or a single line near the "one" on the reader, your results are positive.
In terms of accurateness, Detect tests are comparable to results from PCR tests. According to FDA-reviewed clinical studies, Detect's Covid-19 tests came back with 97.three percentage accuracy. (Simply slightly under Cue'southward 97.9 percent accuracy.)
When you lot compare price points, Observe is a more than affordable culling to Cue. The Notice Hub on its own is $39, and individual tests are $49 each (limited to three tests per order). For $75, yous can also purchase a Detect Covid-19 Starter Kit, which includes i hub and one test (a savings of $thirteen compared to purchasing separately). If items are sold out, check dorsum often. A limited quantity of the Notice Covid-19 tests will exist made available at 12 p.thousand. EST on weekdays via detect.com.
In social club to make your results CDC-compliant for international travel, yous must also purchase a $20 voucher for a video observation session that comes with a CDC-certified written report. While the video session voucher codes are sent to your email after buy, the hub and tests are sent for gratuitous via standard aircraft (expedited shipping is also available at toll). Since I oasis't traveled abroad with these even so, I haven't had the opportunity to try out the video observation session only will report back once I practise. —Lyndsey Matthews
Correction (May xi, 2021): The original version of this article mentioned that the BinaxNOW COVID-xix Antigen Cocky Exam, available for $24 at Walgreens, satisfies the CDC's requirement for international arrivals. That examination does non run across the CDC'due south requirements and is intended for personal apply. The BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Home Test, available on eMed.com and mentioned above, does come across the CDC's requirements for international arrivals.
Michelle Baran, Lyndsey Matthews, and Laura Dannen Redman contributed to the reporting of this article. It was originally published on May 10, 2021; it was updated throughout 2021, and again on January 14, 2022, with new data.
>> Next: How Travelers to the U.S. Can Get COVID Tests Abroad
Products nosotros write about are independently vetted and recommended by our editors. Distant may earn a committee if you buy through our links, which helps support our contained publication.
Source: https://www.afar.com/magazine/cdc-approves-at-home-covid-tests-for-international-travel