SELF ADMINISTERED COVID TESTS FOR AIR TRAVEL COULD RISK THIRD WAVE OF INFECTION
The company warned of a potential ‘disaster waiting to happen’ by relying on self-administered’ home based Lateral Flow and PCR test kits. The company claims by using these types of test it has the very real potential to trigger a third wave of infections over the Summer.
Such a disaster would plunge the airline sector and travel industries back into pre lockdown protocols with many businesses struggling to survive another sustained period of travel ban. Major concerns remain over which countries will be added to the traffic light system. It comes at a time when Australia has announced it will ‘remain closed’ to the majority of international arrivals until the start of 2022 and there are increasing concerns over the infection rate emerging from the Indian variant.
Salutaris People has also called into question how the airlines can subsidise the costs of the tests to airline passengers without passing these costs directly back onto passengers. It highlighted the case of travel operator TUI which announced yesterday it was offering passenger testing from £20 per person for green countries. The company is offering a lateral flow and PCR test through its provider Chronomics. Chronomics advertises the same tests to the public on its website for £120.
Ben Paglia MD of AKEA LIFE, the clinical testing partner to Salutaris People said.
“Whilst on the face of this it is great news for airline passengers, we do have to question, who is picking up the cost of this ? The major airlines and travel operators are heavily subsiding these costs at the moment to just get people flying and booking holidays. They will either have to absorb these costs or pass them onto the consumer. Given the staggering losses that the airlines and tour operators have had to endure over the pandemic, I cannot see how they can add on further losses. In the case of Chronomics who are providing TUI’s testing, if they are advertising and charging £120 for the same tests on their website there is a huge disparity here. Either the airlines are absorbing £100 of the test cost, or the laboratories such as Chronomics have huge margins in the price they are retailing their test kits at? My gut feeling is that it will be the passengers and holiday makers who will eventually be picking up the cost for this with increased prices supplements and surcharges.”
Salutaris People are concerned about the airlines and travel industry relying on this system of self-administered Lateral Flow and PCR home testing kits which were at risk on a number of levels. The company cited several issues with the idea of using the combined lateral flow and PCR test kits which included:
- Lateral flow tests producing a high rate of false negatives which could allow an infectious person to openly travel cross borders in between green zones and then spread the virus exponentially.
- Self-administered Lateral Flow/PCR home test kits producing a much higher rate of ‘Unclear’ test results.
- Risk of home tests being abused and being taken by a third person who presents as negative but is positive or infectious.
- Risk of test results being ‘lost in the lab and postal system’ resulting in secondary testing.
- Labs not offering a refund of home-based Lateral Flow and PCR test kits with ‘Unclear” results and doubling up on costs for secondary testing.
- The subsidised costs of testing kits being ultimately passed back onto airline passengers by stealth.