PCR tests are expensive, impractical and often unnecessary says Adrian Stevens, chief executive of Inventive Health
We are a long way off the world being fully-vaccinated, and the travel industry cannot wait for this target to be reached. Last year alone the industry lost $4.5 trillion and 62 million jobs globally.
What’s needed to get us safely moving is an internationally-recognised vaccine certification system and a robust, cost-effective testing programme.
Despite vaccine passports grabbing headlines of late, any long-term solution will need a combination of certification and testing if it is to prevent variants from spreading.
As governments shift their strategy to living with Covid, we need to get to a stage where showing a vaccine certificate or having a Covid test is as much a part of the travel process as going through security.
Unfortunately, the current way testing is done prevents this from happening and makes travel too expensive for many.
Having recently travelled back from South Africa myself, and experienced the testing procedure for a red list country, I don’t doubt we have a robust process in place for high-risk countries.
While it took me four hours to pass through Heathrow and arrive at a hotel for quarantine, overall the process was smooth and effective. If I were travelling back from an amber list country, I suspect things would be different due to the cost and time needed to complete the required PCR test.
When returning from a high-risk country it makes sense to carry out PCR tests that can check for new variants.
However, these tests are expensive, impractical, and often unnecessary too. According to research from consumer group Which? the cost of four PCR tests is £233.
Costs can be reduced if your journey starts in another country (for example my first test in South Africa cost £40, which is about half the price of a test in the UK). But it is still a significant cost on top of what is already being spent on travel.
For a family of four, testing could double the cost of a holiday, making it unaffordable for many to travel abroad. So, while the cost makes sense for high-risk countries it doesn’t for low-risk destinations.
The primary reason PCR tests are used for travel is their ability to do genomic sequencing and check for variants.
However, travelling from low-risk countries, makes this an unnecessary step as the spread of new variants in these regions is much lower.
Instead, it makes more sense to check for infection only. Making this switch will enable new testing technologies that are quick, low-cost, easy to administer, and provide a clear and reliable indication of infection to be used.
The technology to do this exists too. Simple ultra-rapid testing solutions that can provide results in 20 seconds have been certified as highly reliable and ready to go.
However, for these new testing solutions to be used there needs to be a change in legislation to allow it. Once that is done, more people can once again access international travel.
Be in no doubt, PCR tests will remain the gold standard for testing and be used to confirm positive cases.
However, the cost and time they take make them unsuitable to use at travel hubs like airports, ports, and train stations.
After the last 18 months or so everyone deserves to be able to travel abroad safely and affordably.
If we are to make this happen and see the travel industry return to growth, we need to change the legislation to allow newer forms of testing to be used in their place.