Covid testing in Cozumel

[dmaziuk]

That my friend, is a very good question and just might be the blow that knocks us out. Please hold my hand while I jump off the bridge - poor decisions to the North are going to kill us here, no matter how hard we have worked.........

That, unfortunately, is the problem: nobody really doubts people down there will do their best to keep things going. We just have no confidence in what TPTBs may come up with 3 days before our flight back.

 

[drrich2]

No brushing teeth or gargling and no eating for 3 hours before.

That's odd. I wonder what they're swabbing? I've been PCR tested at least 6 times as part of testing at my work place. They do nasopharyngeal swabs, which means inserting a very long Q-trip through a nostril till it touches the back of my (behind the nose, above the mouth) throat. I don't recall any warnings not to brush teeth, eat or gargle beforehand.

Are they perhaps swabbing in the mouth?

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

I think scheduling ahead is great advice. I am going to line up the tests for the whole fam as soon as we get there on Thursday. Does anyone know what the testing scene is like in Tulum?

 

[mediumone]

That's odd. I wonder what they're swabbing? I've been PCR tested at least 6 times as part of testing at my work place. They do nasopharyngeal swabs, which means inserting a very long Q-trip through a nostril till it touches the back of my (behind the nose, above the mouth) throat. I don't recall any warnings not to brush teeth, eat or gargle beforehand.

Are they perhaps swabbing in the mouth?

I've never been tested, but my wife has 3 times. She's never received instructions of that nature.

 

[diveallthetime]

How far out is Costamed taking reservations? We're booked for early April and don't want to miss setting up an appointment. I also don't want to overwhelm them as people are lining up tests for travel prior to that.

I booked with them last week for Feb. 25th for our return flight on the 27th. booked the rapid test. they sent me a confirmation

 

[Dan]

I've never been tested, but my wife has 3 times. She's never received instructions of that nature.

Same here. I have been PCR tested twice. No such instruction given to me.

 

[tridacna]

That's odd. I wonder what they're swabbing? I've been PCR tested at least 6 times as part of testing at my work place. They do nasopharyngeal swabs, which means inserting a very long Q-trip through a nostril till it touches the back of my (behind the nose, above the mouth) throat. I don't recall any warnings not to brush teeth, eat or gargle beforehand.

Are they perhaps swabbing in the mouth?

Poor oral care may affect the accuracy of COVID-19 tests

 

[ReefHound]

We were scheduled to stay at a condo at Palmar in March, but canceled due to the new testing requirements. Yesterday I got the following email - good info to keep in mind. Btw, I had no idea you weren't supposed to brush your teeth, gargle or eat for 3 hours prior to PCR testing.

At this point, I wouldn't cancel. When it was first announced, I thought it would kill tourism. I assumed it would be the PCR test and Mexico would leave tourists to their own devices to figure out where and how to get tested and then sweat out getting the results. As I said on FB, most tourists couldn't manage to order a pizza delivery much less navigate a foreign medical system in a foreign language. They would probably think Costamed is a spa. My thought was that the Cozumel tourism industry was going to have to hold the tourists' hands and make it effortless for them, and they have mostly responded in that way.

 

[ReefHound]

One thing that has not been brought up is the availability of testing supplies. With this mandate for testing being imposed will there be enough testing supplies in Cancun and Cozumel? I have been sick over the weekend and need a test prior to returning to work. I found that in North Texas they are running very low on the rapid test and the PCR test takes 2-5 days. Up here unless you show symptoms, no rapid test. While the air passenger numbers for Cozumel are not that high Cancun had 800K international passengers in December. Does the Mexico health care system have the infrastructure and supplies to handle this many additional tests and if not will the US suspend the requirement for QR?

I raised that point in a FB discussion when it was said that Canada has been requiring tests already. In 2018, 56% of air arrivals were from U.S. followed by 11% from Canada. So 5x more Americans. What works for a small group doesn't always scale to a large group. A hospital may be able to test 100 people in a day and get results back in 48 hours but that doesn't mean they can do the same for 500 people.

I also seem to recall testing being scarce prior to these foreign countries mandating thousands of tests per week for their own residents. Will this be taking tests away from the Mexican people? Who will supply low-cost tests to locals if they can make out selling tests to rich Canadians and Americans?

I think the inclusion of the antigen test was partly due to the demands this rule would place on PCR testing.

 

[Grateful head]

In one of these threads, the idea was presented of going to St Croix and the question arose as to whether the re-entry test requirement would apply to US territories. CDC seems to have updated their page and the answer seems to be it does not.

Are territories or possessions of the US considered foreign countries for the purposes of this Order?

No, the Order to present a documentation of a negative COVID-19 test or recovery from COVID-19 does not apply to air passengers flying from a US territory or possession to a US state.


US territories and possessions of the US include American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.
COVID-19 and Your Health

This may be the determining factor as to cancel Cozumel trip. Say a guy goes to Cozumel for a week and tests positive for covid two days before re-entry to the states. What a nightmare the vacation then becomes. Traveling instead to St.Croix (or not traveling at all) becomes a more viable option.