Covid testing in Cozumel

[Dan]

I FINALLY FINALLY convinced my partner to go to Cozumel (end of March) and we paid for the whole trip yesterday. We'll already be vaccinated, and we had to rearrange our flights to go through Portland, OR so we could get an instant PCR test at the airport in order to return home to Hawaii and now we need to get another test the DAY BEFORE in order to return to the USA? What the actual bleep. When I tell him he's going to want to immediately cancel the trip.

I hope you are right that the airline will step up to the plate and offer the tests. That would be nice.

You mean antigen test? There is no such thing of instant PCR. It’ll take at least 2 days and $130/test the last 2 times I took them. Antigen test would only take <2 hours to get the result and some resorts can do it for free or very cheaply. No biggy.

 

[jonhall]

Are you sure it wasn't just for agricultural inspection?

It is (or used to be) a bag check. Not for agriculture. I remember this as I was always afraid they were going to rip open my neatly packed and taped *boxes of rum. Didn't care about my suitcase!

*notice the plural - boxes - I would bring back 6 bottles in a box (the limit) and my wife would bring back 6 bottles!!!! A nice perk of St. Croix travel.

I expect a completely different scenario of testing and restrictions before my (forced) booked trip to Coz late in the year. So no rush on my part for airfare or anything else other than the rooms being locked in.

 

[Jcp2]

You mean antigen test? There is no such thing of instant PCR. It’ll take at least 2 days and $130/test the last 2 times I took them. Antigen test would only take <2 hours to get the result and some resorts can do it for free or very cheaply. No biggy.

We test potential hospital inpatient with PCR in my lab. It takes about 45 minutes to run. Unfortunately there are limited test kit numbers, so we save them for making sure admitted patients are put into the appropriate isolation areas. My medium sized instrument could physically test over 300 patients a day but because of limitations in test allocation I can only support a tenth of that number.

 

[P-Dog]

You mean antigen test? There is no such thing of instant PCR. It’ll take at least 2 days and $130/test the last 2 times I took them. Antigen test would only take <2 hours to get the result and some resorts can do it for free or very cheaply. No biggy.

I should have said 2 hour NAAT test (in Portland). Antigen tests are not accepted in Hawai'i.

We'll just get the cheapest antigen test we can find in Mexico since the test that actually gets us home to Hawai'i will be the following day.

Is there any news on quarantining upon returning to the USA?

 

[P-Dog]

We test potential hospital inpatient with PCR in my lab. It takes about 45 minutes to run. Unfortunately there are limited test kit numbers, so we save them for making sure admitted patients are put into the appropriate isolation areas. My medium sized instrument could physically test over 300 patients a day but because of limitations in test allocation I can only support a tenth of that number.

This quick test is only being offered at Portland Airport for ticketed Alaska passengers. Results in 2 hours.

I just checked...not PCR. It's NAAT. I don't know the difference between all of these different types of tests!

 

[Dan]

I should have said 2 hour NAAT test (in Portland). Antigen tests are not accepted in Hawai'i.

We'll just get the cheapest antigen test we can find in Mexico since the test that actually gets us home to Hawai'i will be the following day.

Is there any news on quarantining upon returning to the USA?

Really?

COVID-19 and Your Health

According to CDC, antigen test is sufficient. What’s so special about Hawaii?

 

[uncfnp]

@P-Dog maybe I can help. For this purpose there are 2 types of tests, Antigen (often called Rapid) and PCR. PCR is also NAAT.

The amount of time is kind of irrelevant to the discussion. Just look at the name of the test.

Times given are time to report of results. The time to run the tests themselves are not applicable.

 

[Jcp2]

This quick test is only being offered at Portland Airport for ticketed Alaska passengers. Results in 2 hours.

I just checked...not PCR. It's NAAT. I don't know the difference between all of these different types of tests!

NAAT = nucleic acid amplification technology
PCR = polymerase chain reaction (the first nucleic acid amplification technology, won the Nobel prize)
PCR is a subtype of NAAT. There are other types of NAAT that do not use Taq polymerase. They all exponentially amplify a very small amount of DNA and are very sensitive and specific.

The antigen tests detect larger viral particle fragments without exponential amplification and are less sensitive and less specific.

 

[RayfromTX]

Was just talking to Terri, our consulate agent, and she said Ahorra across from Coppal on 65 and on 11 and 30 gives the antigen test for 350 pesos. Hospital is $999. Must be max of 3 days before leave, cannot be same day and name must be exactly the same as passport, date tested, type of test and result.

 

[P-Dog]

Really?

COVID-19 and Your Health

According to CDC, antigen test is sufficient. What’s so special about Hawaii?

LOL - I ask myself that regularly.

We shut down entirely early and had a 14 day quarantine just to travel inter-island (within the same state). It wasn't until October that we reopened to tourism. That requires an NAAT test 72 hours before flying from a "trusted partner".

The island of Kauaʻi opted out of testing entirely and still requires a quarantine to visit. I'm not sure how the mayor overrode the governor on that, but there you have it.