Paphos Life

Australia and several other countries joined nations imposing restrictions on travel from southern Africa on Saturday after the discovery of the new Omicron coronavirus variant sparked global concern and triggered a sell-off on financial markets....

Read the article and chat about it below...

And for all arrivals in UK from overseas (no matter where in the world) it's back to a 2 Day PCR test, self-isolate until a Negative result is received.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-5944 ... type=share

I have to agree. The UK's private PCR regime is a total swindle. When my wife last did one, she never received her results. People are driven to the cheapest, least reliable companies by the high costs. I'm also reconsidering my Christmas trip to the UK. They should keep the rapid test requirement and then require state-funded PCR tests for those who test positive. There's no need for everyone arriving to take PCR tests.

Lloyd - the postal one is so simple. Ours was delivered to our hotel. Circular 1 Health (a company on the UK government approved list) is £49.99 but currently reduced to £37.

https://circular1.com/arriving-in-the-uk-travel-tests/

Jeanne

We just booked a trip to Spain on Friday but not travelling for around 3 months.
Spain updated their rules for us yesterday too - only fully vaccinated allowed to enter, no longer accepting a negative test results.

We returned to UK from Spain on 11 November using the LFT tests pre-booked and paid for before we left UK.
Very simple, 20 minutes for results to show, photo of test with the code visible and upload to the testing company website. Code gets matched to your purchase automatically and confirmation of receipt sent almost immediately.
We uploaded our results on Sunday and confirmation of our negative test emailed within 2hrs. £12 person.

I've just checked the rules of return to UK on our government website and the update from yesterday has not been updated as yet.

Depending where and the time you arrive in UK, you can pre-book your test to be taken at your arrival airport. A friend of ours did it at Manchester in October.

There's a list of testing companies on the UK Government website and the bigger company appears to be Randox. They have Drop Boxes which are collected directly or you put your test kit into one of the Priority postboxes. We have a priority postbox outside our village post office and mail is collected 3 times per day by Royal Mail.

They say they will review again in 3 weeks which leaves no room for shuffling Christmas plans

You can also book a test on arrival at the airport test centres. Just Google the airport name and 2 day test to see the options,

Jeanne

Lofos-Jan wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:49 am You can also book a test on arrival at the airport test centres. Just Google the airport name and 2 day test to see the options,

Jeanne

From my experience, booking a test at the airport centre is best. I ordered the test kit by post from Randox. When I came to do the test, I found that the buffer solution tube was empty. Rang up for a replacement, hanging on to speak to someone for 45 minutes (call to Ireland!). Replacement kit sent by DHL. Did the test on November 20th and still waiting for the confirmation certificate that the result was negative.

I suspect you have already come to a decision Lloyd. To me there too many unknowns with Omicron at the moment so I'd rather be at home & in control

Happy in Cyprus wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:40 pm

DavidatLWH wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:30 pmDid the test on November 20th and still waiting for the confirmation certificate that the result was negative.

Exactly the kind of scenario I envisage, with perhaps 100,000 people a day requiring a PCR test from this point on. Once they have your money they don't care.

I was required to do a postal PCR test in the UK. It arrived by courier on a Sunday morning. I did the test at midday and posted it back using the priority mailbox near my location at 1pm. On Monday morning at 7:30am I had my result by email. I regard that as quite impressive given the circumstances.

Good on ya Lloyd & still with a sense of adventure that left me some time ago. Cambridge is a great city & would be interesting to hear of your experience in future blogs

Happy in Cyprus wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 5:09 pm Just read a report from the SA doctor who first discovered Omicrom, symptoms are said to be different to the usual Covid (eg. no loss of taste/smell) but are reportedly extremely mild. Which has to be good after all the scare stories. It was this doctor who then reported the new variant to her country's authorities.

Oh my….do you think that the good old fashioned winter cold / mild flu could be making a come back????

Happy in Cyprus wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 5:09 pm
Just read a report from the SA doctor who first discovered Omicrom, symptoms are said to be different to the usual Covid (eg. no loss of taste/smell) but are reportedly extremely mild. Which has to be good after all the scare stories.

So far, that´s only anecdotal evidence. E.g. symptoms observed by now may have been mild because only young and/or vaccinated people were affected. We may hope that it causes less severe illness, but we still have to wait for the answer to this question.
I had planned to travel to South Africa in January but will wait until we know more, especially about the efficacy of the vaccination against that variant.

Lloyd, they don't have to be on the UK Government approved list.
They do however, have to fulfill all the testing criteria which is stated on the government website.
Just check out what the company states on their own website, or contact them for confirmation of it

Happy in Cyprus wrote: ↑Mon Nov 29, 2021 3:04 pm Thanks Photolady. We have booked two tests, but the receipts for the tests don't indicate which of two possible numbers on the receipts are the ones to use on the PLF. Does anyone know how many digits there are in this important code? T.I.A.

The booking reference on the PLF will initially indicate the lab, so my reference, using Randox, was RANDX4496272. So the answer to the number of digits is 12.

HIC have sent you a PM.

Ian