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Heathrow installs COVID testing facility

Monday, August 24, 2020

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London’s Heathrow Airport has finally installed a COVID-19 testing facility ahead of a potential change in the quarantine policy of the government. The moves comes following the airport’s request to introduce a strong testing facility to cut quarantine from high risk countries, while keeping the public safe from a second wave of coronavirus outbreak. The facility has been developed by Collinson and Swissport, and enables passengers to undergo COVID-19 testing upon arrival and receive the result hours later.


The existing facility can test more than 13,000 passengers each day and can also be further scaled with demand. At present, it can also be hoped that with approval from the government, people testing negative during the process will be allowed to exit quarantine early. Currently, more than 30 countries around the world have embraced airport-based coronavirus testing. PCR testing is also undergoing extensive trials at several international borders, in destinations with very strong scientific oversight such as Germany, and found to be safe, and is now being rolled out in France, Iceland and Austria.


Collinson nurses will be present inside Heathrow’s new testing area in Terminal 2 and provide on hand assistance for a swab within the facility, which will then be transported by Swissport staff to a specifically dedicated Collinson biotech lab near Heathrow. The tests will be transported using the same protocols as the NHS uses for home swab tests. It is expected that with government support, the pilot of the new testing procedure could be available as a private service to anyone with a flight landing in Heathrow Terminal 2, and within a few weeks for those arriving in Terminal 5.


John Holland-Kaye, Chief Executive, Heathrow Airport said in a statement that the testing facility will not only avoid the “quarantine roulette” that many passengers faced in Spain and France, but it will also open up flights to key trading partners such as the U.S., Canada and Singapore. He mentioned that the government’s own research shows that a double test has a high level of accuracy in screening for COVID-19 and shared that the facility is an oven-ready opportunity to see how Britain can safely reopen for business, similar to other countries.

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