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Gatwick Airport is opening a Covid testing site at its long stay park in a facility it says could meet requirements for the government’s expected ‘test and release’ scheme.
The centre will offer tests for all passengers and staff at a subsidised rate of £60 and for the general public at £99.
The lab-analysed PCR swab tests can be booked from next Friday, 27 November, with the first appointments available on 30 November. Results will be known the following day.
Gatwick said it will particularly benefit passengers who require a negative Covid test to enter the country they are travelling to.
The airport said the facility could, with any necessary amendments, also satisfy requirements of the Government’s ‘test and release’ post arrival scheme that is expected to be launched in order to reduce quarantine period.
Anyone with recognisable COVID-19 symptoms will still need to use an NHS testing facility, the airport said.
Chief Executive Stewart Wingate said: “Our new screening facility is also a convenient service to offer people in the region looking for extra reassurance. We are pleased to be subsidising the price for our passengers and any staff based at Gatwick so they are compliant with current destination requirements that many of airlines including easyJet, British Airways and TUI fly to.
“Our industry has been decimated by the pandemic and, while we welcome the anticipated ‘test and release# scheme from the Government, we want to see an internationally agreed pre-departure testing regime, based on existing risk criteria, to replace the current uncertainty of quarantine and patchwork of testing approaches which currently exists across Europe. A truly international approach would safely open up most of the UK’s travel routes abroad, while also helping to reduce transmission of the virus.”
The site has been developed in conjunction with ExpressTest.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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