Local COVID Testing Needed for Travel with No Symptoms or Contacts

3,445 Views | 25 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by BCS-Ag
pants
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Ok, so the situation looks like this: My wife and I would like to travel on vacation to Maine in the coming weeks, but Maine requires a negative COVID test from a sample taken 72 hours or less before arrival (or 14 days quarantine in Maine, deal breaker). Maine will accept PCR tests or an antigen (not antibody) test from an ID NOW machine. It's also important to note that we have no symptoms and no known contact with infected people.

I can't find anyone locally with a PCR test that reliably takes less than 3 days to get results, and the only antigen tests I've found available are not the ID NOW tests or if they are, they won't test without symptoms or contacts.

I have called Scott and White (and their convenient care), St. Joseph (and their urgent care), caprock, signature, and brazos valley urgent care.

Who am I missing? Any tips?
EliteElectric
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Watching
musicforall
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Bump
new straw
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I believe most (if not all) of the quick reacting tests are for HCP/first responders who have been exposed and symptomatic patients. That could be incorrect, but with the limited supply, many places are limiting it to essential testing only.
trouble
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AG
Get tested, travel, quarantine until get your results.

Most of those are running 3-5 days.
pants
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That's definitely an option. It's not our first choice because we only have a week for this trip. If it takes 6 days, that's nearly half of our trip stuck in a hotel near the airport. Another option is to just take off and drive to a nearby state that's open.
trouble
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AG
Get tested as close to the 72 hour mark as you can. Maybe it comes in before you leave. Maybe it comes in within a day or 2 of you getting there.
Sweet Kitten Feet
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S
My son got tested at st Joseph in south cs on Tuesday noon. Got results a few minutes ago. Negative.
pants
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Did your son have symptoms or known contact with a positive case?
pants
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The other problem with getting a test and quarantining until we get results is, if it's positive, then we have to come home and we basically just used our plane tickets for a stay at a motel. If we get results before we leave, we can at least maybe transfer the tickets to a flight at a later date
montegobay
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Can you go somewhere else for this trip with less stringent regulations and go there another time?
Sweet Kitten Feet
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S
He had direct contact with someone who tested positive early last week so we went ahead and got him tested
pants
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montegobay said:

Can you go somewhere else for this trip with less stringent regulations and go there another time?
Yeah, that's Plan B. We are just frustrated because before researching, we thought surely anyone could get tested who wanted to in a reasonable amount of time. This has been going on for months, so we thought it would be easy at this point. We'll re-check early next week and make a decision then.
doubledog
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It was my understanding that BVUC did the 15min test.

texasaggie04
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AG
I went to st Joe's in South college station. I have a mild cough (tested negative, likely allergies) but I'm headed out of town to care for an older family member with non-covid pulmonary disease so I wanted to get tested first.

Was about a two hour wait (walk-in) and had the results back in two days.
pants
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I guess it changes all the time. When I called yesterday, they said they weren't doing it anymore.
pants
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I was told two days ago that you had to be symptomatic or exposed to someone positive to get tested at a st joe's facility.
threecatcorner
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Saw an ad for some place called Integrity Urgent Care. Says 3-5 days
BCS-Ag
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I need to get tested too by mid-week. Headed to see an at risk relative. It's okay if it takes a few days turn around as we are making a week long, isolated drive there.
Rapier108
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It's a little ways out, but they're having another drive through testing event July 7th and 8th.

http://wtaw.com/another-round-of-free-coronavirus-testing-is-coming-to-the-brazos-county-expo/

https://txcovidtest.org/
"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." - Sir Winston Churchill
texasaggie04
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AG
pants said:

I was told two days ago that you had to be symptomatic or exposed to someone positive to get tested at a st joe's facility.

When I walked in I told them why I was there. Did not try to hide that at all. Still got tested.
Again, my purpose was to care for a family member though. Not to travel for fun.
pants
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texasaggie04 said:

pants said:

I was told two days ago that you had to be symptomatic or exposed to someone positive to get tested at a st joe's facility.

When I walked in I told them why I was there. Did not try to hide that at all. Still got tested.
Again, my purpose was to care for a family member though. Not to travel for fun.
You also said in your previous post that you had symptoms. I guess I assumed you told them about yours. Either way, we'd probably need the rapid test (antigen test) from an ID NOW machine.

We'll just check around next week one more time, and then make a plan from there. Thanks for all the replies!
BCS-Ag
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Rapier108 said:

It's a little ways out, but they're having another drive through testing event July 7th and 8th.

http://wtaw.com/another-round-of-free-coronavirus-testing-is-coming-to-the-brazos-county-expo/

https://txcovidtest.org/



This is great, any idea how long the turnaround time is? Do you have to have symptoms to get tested?

Rapier108
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BCS-Ag said:

Rapier108 said:

It's a little ways out, but they're having another drive through testing event July 7th and 8th.

http://wtaw.com/another-round-of-free-coronavirus-testing-is-coming-to-the-brazos-county-expo/

https://txcovidtest.org/



This is great, any idea how long the turnaround time is? Do you have to have symptoms to get tested?
No idea on the turn around time. All depends on the lab they use.

I went through the questionnaire and answered no/none to everything and it still took me to the screen to enter an e-mail address to be given an appointment time. Can't say it will actually make an appointment, but I'd go ahead and do it and see what happens if you want to get tested.

The txcovid.text.org is now just a redirect to the new site.

https://texas.curativeinc.com/welcome
"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." - Sir Winston Churchill
new straw
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Best bet would be to change your plans. There are lots of fun places to hang in Texas. Please don't try to take the place or a sick person or an exposed health care provider to go on vacation.
pants
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new straw said:

Best bet would be to change your plans. There are lots of fun places to hang in Texas. Please don't try to take the place or a sick person or an exposed health care provider to go on vacation.
Thanks for the tip. We have definitely considered your suggestion already, but Texas is too hot this time of year. We will go elsewhere for our vacation and hang out in Texas the rest of the year. And if they haven't saved enough tests for the sick and healthcare workers since this thing started in March, they never will.
BCS-Ag
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That testing site emailed me a link to a bunch of testing locations all over EXCEPT here.
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