PCR tests

[watsonbeau]

In the event you test positive on a home lateral flow test, previous threads would indicate for insurance claim your best option to claim might be to obtain a PCR test to prove you have Covid - how would you go about it ? Given that you’d need to do it asap so probably still infectious ?

 

thank you 

[Windsurfboy]

There is no way you can get an administered pcr without  lying if you are positive.

 

You can get an at home test,  quickest is  click and collect (e.g randox) if you live in right area, but ideally  send someone else to collect ,  or get it by post, pay for next day delivery.  Post off and get results next day. That would all be in 48 hrs assuming you act quick and no postal strike. 

 

What does your insurance company require, must say in t&cs.

 

Given all this it's an encouragement of anyone who has mild covid to lie , and turn up to cruise.

[watsonbeau]

No Randox near me. By time a kit was posted and used could well be not showing as positive. So not much good.
 

Just looking at Megabear2 comments re current insurance situation if denied boarding.. Fair to say you’d have to have something to prove Covid and no doctor is going to see you with it! And no insurance companies seem to cover unless you can show claim under medical section it seems. 

[zap99]

21 minutes ago, watsonbeau said:

No Randox near me. By time a kit was posted and used could well be not showing as positive. So not much good.
 

Just looking at Megabear2 comments re current insurance situation if denied boarding.. Fair to say you’d have to have something to prove Covid and no doctor is going to see you with it! And no insurance companies seem to cover unless you can show claim under medical section it seems. 

Some folk, if negative, would just tell porkies and go on the cruise. 

[Windsurfboy]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

Some folk, if negative, would just tell porkies and go on the cruise. 

 

It's the inevitable outcome of P&O policy that most people , certainly those that later test negative before cruise will as you say tell porkies and go on cruise.

[Kittyonions]

Watsonbeau, how did you find the comments of Megabear2, I thought they had been deleted!

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, watsonbeau said:

No Randox near me. By time a kit was posted and used could well be not showing as positive. So not much good.
 

Just looking at Megabear2 comments re current insurance situation if denied boarding.. Fair to say you’d have to have something to prove Covid and no doctor is going to see you with it! And no insurance companies seem to cover unless you can show claim under medical section it seems. 

Randox would post your test kit for next day delivery, you can mail it back the same day, so you should still be positive.

[zap99]

15 minutes ago, Kittyonions said:

Watsonbeau, how did you find the comments of Megabear2, I thought they had been deleted!

Have a look on page 3 of the P&O forum....update on insurance issues.

[Gettingwarmer]

15 minutes ago, Kittyonions said:

Watsonbeau, how did you find the comments of Megabear2, I thought they had been deleted!

They are still there under this thread

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2891376-update-on-insurance-issues-on-removal-of-fcc/

 

 

[zap99]

12 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Randox would post your test kit for next day delivery, you can mail it back the same day, so you should still be positive.

Or hope you are negative. You can then go on your holiday.

[Kittyonions]

Thanks Zap and Gettingwarmer for your assistance with locating the insurance thread that I thought had been deleted!

[cruising.mark.uk]

14 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

There is no way you can get an administered pcr without  lying if you are positive.

 

Not true at all.  You can't get a free PCR test anymore, but you can get paid for ones (from about £50) at airports, chemists and other providers all over the country.  Any search engine will provide you hundreds of options.  And, if it is essential for a successful insurance claim, it must be worth paying.

[9265359]

4 hours ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

Not true at all.  You can't get a free PCR test anymore, but you can get paid for ones (from about £50) at airports, chemists and other providers all over the country.  Any search engine will provide you hundreds of options.  And, if it is essential for a successful insurance claim, it must be worth paying.

 

And the administered ones all say - *don't book a test if you have the symptoms of COVID*

[cruising.mark.uk]

The OP asked how one gets a PCR test if one has a positive lateral flow.  They didn't ask how you get a PCR test if you have symptoms...

[9265359]

1 hour ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

The OP asked how one gets a PCR test if one has a positive lateral flow.  They didn't ask how you get a PCR test if you have symptoms...

Are you seriously suggesting that someone books and goes to an attended PCR test *AFTER* they have received a positive lateral flow test!
 

Words fail me.

[JDB78]

4 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

Are you seriously suggesting that someone books and goes to an attended PCR test *AFTER* they have received a positive lateral flow test!
 

Words fail me.

 

Isn't that what happened right through the pandemic? You do a home lateral flow - you test positive so drive to a centre or order a PCR? The rules then changed to only go for a PCR if you had symptoms, before doing away with the PCR altogether.

 

I thought the point was that a lateral flow might throw up a false positive and the PCR was more accurate

[9265359]

16 minutes ago, JDB78 said:

 

Isn't that what happened right through the pandemic? You do a home lateral flow - you test positive so drive to a centre or order a PCR? The rules then changed to only go for a PCR if you had symptoms, before doing away with the PCR altogether.

 

I thought the point was that a lateral flow might throw up a false positive and the PCR was more accurate

No that wasn’t what happened during the pandemic (which hasn’t actually ended).

 

If an LFT showed a positive result you certainly didn’t then go book a PCR test, so requiring someone to get up close to you in order to perform a PCR test and likely infecting them.

[watsonbeau]

TBH the whole Covid testing /deny boarding /questionnaire issue is a complete farce. All it’s doing is causing people to be dishonest.
 

If the cruise lines want to stay in business they seriously need to do something about this.

 

We don’t all have a bottomless pit of money to take the chance of losing the cost of a cruise given that no insurers will provide cover. 

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, 9265359 said:

No that wasn’t what happened during the pandemic (which hasn’t actually ended).

 

If an LFT showed a positive result you certainly didn’t then go book a PCR test, so requiring someone to get up close to you in order to perform a PCR test and likely infecting them.

Well initially there were no LFTs, but if you had the symptoms you went for a PCR test, however you stayed in your vehicle and the test kit was passed to you through an open window. There were also walk in test centres, which were probably even more likely to put the testers at risk.

[9265359]

1 minute ago, terrierjohn said:

Well initially there were no LFTs, but if you had the symptoms you went for a PCR test, however you stayed in your vehicle and the test kit was passed to you through an open window. There were also walk in test centres, which were probably even more likely to put the testers at risk.

And when there were LFTs then that process stopped.

 

11 minutes ago, watsonbeau said:

TBH the whole Covid testing /deny boarding /questionnaire issue is a complete farce. All it’s doing is causing people to be dishonest.

With P&O’s voluntary test policy you would have to be stupid if you intended being dishonest.

 

13 minutes ago, watsonbeau said:

If the cruise lines want to stay in business they seriously need to do something about this.

Insist on mandatory tests and a proportion of people don’t book. Don’t insist on mandatory tests and a proportion of people don’t book. Rock and a hard place.

 

14 minutes ago, watsonbeau said:

We don’t all have a bottomless pit of money to take the chance of losing the cost of a cruise given that no insurers will provide cover. 

Neither do the cruise companies, which is why they have removed the generous offers they had previously made to get nervous customers back to booking, but as the ships fill then those offers are no longer needed.

[Windsurfboy]

10 hours ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

Not true at all.  You can't get a free PCR test anymore, but you can get paid for ones (from about £50) at airports, chemists and other providers all over the country.  Any search engine will provide you hundreds of options.  And, if it is essential for a successful insurance claim, it must be worth paying.

 

I said you can't get an administered PCR without lying if you are positive.

 

There may  be hundreds , but they all say, DO NOT COME IF YOU HAVE TESTED POSITIVE FOR COVID.

 

So you have to lie , or do a home test.

[terrierjohn]

9 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

With P&O’s voluntary test policy you would have to be stupid if you intended being dishonest.

 

Insist on mandatory tests and a proportion of people don’t book. Don’t insist on mandatory tests and a proportion of people don’t book. Rock and a hard place.

 

Neither do the cruise companies, which is why they have removed the generous offers they had previously made to get nervous customers back to booking, but as the ships fill then those offers are no longer needed.

Not sure that I understand the first comment about being stupid if you intend to be dishonest.

 

I doubt that either mandatory or non mandatory testing would result in a significant reduction in bookings.

 

Even though I do have sympathy with the cruise lines as they try to recover from the drastic losses they suffered during the pandemic, I cannot agree that sensibly denying boarding for passengers who are very likely to be infectied with covid or noro, should not be given a full FCC for the cost of their lost holiday, especially where insurers won't cover these losses.

[Windsurfboy]

The answer is simple , then only way not to loose all your money is to not test for covid and say NO NO NO to all the questions.

 

Very anti social you may say, but everyone is vaccinated and have taken decision to come on a cruise with thousands of others

[cruising.mark.uk]

4 hours ago, 9265359 said:

No that wasn’t what happened during the pandemic (which hasn’t actually ended).

 

If an LFT showed a positive result you certainly didn’t then go book a PCR test, so requiring someone to get up close to you in order to perform a PCR test and likely infecting them.

Actually, that's exactly what happened during the worst of the pandemic.  A positive LFT was never definitive, and the advice was always to have it confirmed (or otherwise) by an LFT. 

 

So, in the scenario we are in now the most sensible thing to do is to conduct a PCR test immediately before you cruise.  If that is positive, your insurer will pay up.  If it's negative you know you can cruise with a clean conscience, knowing (at least at the time the test was taken) that you weren't going to spread C19 onboard.  If I remember correctly, that advice came up loud and clear as the sensible way ahead on the Megabear2 thread being quoted.  And, incidentally, following it would have avoided the problem encountered by the OP in the latest 'P&O wouldn't let me sail' thread which was closed down very shortly after it started - that individual's problem was with insurance, not with P&O, and if they had taken a PCR test the insurer would have paid.

[9265359]

22 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

Actually, that's exactly what happened during the worst of the pandemic.  A positive LFT was never definitive, and the advice was always to have it confirmed (or otherwise) by an LFT. 

I assume you mean PCR rather than LFT in your last reference, but that wasn’t the advice. The advice on getting a positive LFT was to stay at home and not go wandering around looking for other tests and potentially infecting others.

 

24 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

So, in the scenario we are in now the most sensible thing to do is to conduct a PCR test immediately before you cruise.  If that is positive, your insurer will pay up.  If it's negative you know you can cruise with a clean conscience, knowing (at least at the time the test was taken) that you weren't going to spread C19 onboard.  If I remember correctly, that advice came up loud and clear as the sensible way ahead on the Megabear2 thread being quoted.  And, incidentally, following it would have avoided the problem encountered by the OP in the latest 'P&O wouldn't let me sail' thread which was closed down very shortly after it started - that individual's problem was with insurance, not with P&O, and if they had taken a PCR test the insurer would have paid.

But how are you going to get an administered PCR without lying ?

 

None of the commercial companies will test you if you already have a positive LFT and neither will the NHS.