How to Get a COVID-19 Test Abroad

 

How to Get a COVID-19 Test Abroad

Peter Thornton - February 23, 2021

International travelers are now required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test before boarding a flight to the U.S. This includes both foreigners and U.S. citizens. If you have an international trip coming up, you may wonder how you’ll be able to get tested abroad so that you’ll be able to fly back home.

Testing Required to Enter U.S.

While several countries still have an outright ban on travel for U.S. citizens (if not all international travelers) there are still places where Americans are allowed to travel. Some popular destinations where Americans are currently traveling include Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Caribbean, to name a few. Testing has been required to enter most countries for a while, but now you’ll also need to take a viral test within three calendar days before your flight to the U.S. departs. Here’s how.

Check with the U.S. Embassy

The Department of State — Bureau of Consular Affairs recommends that you check with the U.S. Embassy for the specific country you are flying to. This is the most reliable resource for information on whether U.S. citizens are able to take a test in any given country, where it is possible, and how long it is expected to take.

It should be noted that the embassies themselves are not administering tests and travelers are required to pay any fees associated with taking a test in a foreign country. It may be best to schedule an appointment to ensure you’ll be able to get a test in time. These websites provide an excellent overview of the virus situation at large in any given country and should always be part of the planning process when traveling abroad.

Test at Your Hotel

Believe it or not, hotels are adding testing as a perk to lure travelers towards their properties. Hyatt Hotels Corporation is offering complimentary tests to guests at its resorts in Latin America and the Caribbean through May 31, 2021. Each individual property may require a minimum stay for the free test and the offer is valid for up to two people per room. Additional guests can receive a test for a fee.

There are several other hotel groups and individual properties that are offering free testing to guests. Couples Resorts in Jamaica, Hard Rock all-inclusive resorts in Mexico/Caribbean, and Velas Resorts, to name a few. Los Cabos is even implementing a program to provide free or low-cost testing (starting at $60) at all of its resorts. This is likely to become more common as hotels and cities are trying to bring back tourists and want to make it as easy as possible for their guests to travel safely. When checking for a place to stay, it’s a good idea to call your hotel and check if testing will be available on-site.

Book an All-Inclusive Tour

If you’re the type of traveler who likes to have everything taken care of, there are some luxury tour groups that will arrange it all for you, including your required COVID-19 test before your return flight to the U.S. Heading to the Galapagos Islands? Book with Metropolitan Touring and they’ll arrange a test for you in Quito or Guayaquil before your trip to the islands and before your flight back home.

Classic Journeys, a travel company providing all kinds of tours all over the world, is incorporating testing into the last few days of all international tours so participants won’t need to worry about arranging a test themselves. Embark Beyond goes even further by offering an add-on insurance for $43/day, which, in addition to in-room testing prior to your flight to the U.S., guarantees a return to the U.S. by medical transport should you test positive.

Ask Your Airline

Airlines are also gathering information on where testing can be done for its passengers while abroad. This can be a great way to streamline your test results to your airline as it is the airline’s responsibility to check that you have a negative test before you board your flight to the U.S. Delta and United both have search tools on their website for you to locate testing centers while abroad. Sun Country has a handy list of testing sites for several of its Mexico destinations and other airlines are likely to provide you with some information on where you can get tested by calling customer service.  

Test at the Airport

Airports around the world are also implementing COVID-19 testing stations as it is likely to be a standard for international travel for the foreseeable future. In Mexico, multiple airports have either already started or soon plan to offer on-site testing for international travelers. You’ll be able to get a test at Cancun (CUN) Airport, but it states that the mobile testing units are a last-resort and strongly recommends getting tested before arriving at the airport.

A test at the airport could be one of the most convenient locations if your hotel itself doesn’t offer testing, but keep in mind that testing supplies at airports could be limited. Make sure to check your airport’s website so you know if testing is available and if you’re able to make an appointment to take a test before your flight.Adapting to the new way of travel will take some time, but the testing procedures put in place will make for a safer experience all around. And if you’re still having trouble finding a place to get tested abroad, you can check out this great crowd-sourced search tool at testfortravel.com. Simply enter the city and type of test you’re looking for. It will give you a list of locations with contact information so you can call and double check on the availability of testing.

All products and services mentioned on Airfarewatchdog are independently selected by our team of expert travelers. If you buy something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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5 Ways to Get a COVID-19 Test Abroad

 

Now that a negative COVID-19 test is required to enter the U.S., it's more important than ever that you know where you can get tested abroad.

Mexico News Today Friday, February 26, 2021

 

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2021

Pemex lost nearly 500bn pesos last year The company faced the ‘worst crisis’ in its history, reporting a loss of US $23 billion, which is 38.2% more than it lost in 2019. FULL STORY

US urges Mexico to heed private sector concerns over electricity market overhaul A United States assistant secretary of state told reporters that Mexico should listen to what business stakeholders are saying about the government's proposed overhaul of the electricity market. FULL STORY

Over 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine expected by the end of May A total of 3.3 million doses are expected this month, with over 100 million expected over March, April and May. FULL STORY Foreign residents assured of vaccine eligibility in CDMX Non-Mexicans who live in the city are eligible to receive Covid-19 inoculation even if they don’t have an ID card proving residence, promised a government official. FULL STORY At least 8 dead, 2 missing after community attempts to repel armed attack The killings and abductions occurred during clashes in Guerrero between residents and members of a criminal gang. FULL STORY Tulum police arrest gay couple for kissing in public ‘with children present’ Municipal officers in the Quintana Roo city briefly arrested the men at a beach, but an angry crowd came to their defense. FULL STORY Chihuahua priest is found guilty of sexual assault of 8-year-old girl The 78-year-old Catholic clergyman was convicted this week after evidence from more than 20 witnesses. FULL STORY ADVERTISEMENT Mexico’s fishermen adapt, innovate while government lags behind: expert Omar Vidal interviews sustainable fisheries advocate Jorge Torre on the 'mismatch' between industry needs and the pace of federal policy. FULL STORY MEXICO LIFE Southern Mixtecs find challenges and successes in Mexico's northwest Over a century, thousands of members of the indigenous group have been migrating to the Baja Peninsula to find better economic opportunities, Leigh Thelmadatter writes. FULL STORY GDP plunged 8.5% in 2020, worst decline in 90 years It's official – Mexico recorded its worst economic contraction since the Great Depression as the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the economy. FULL STORY Details of December’s massive blackout to be kept under wraps for 2 years CFE will keep information about the blackout secret until 2023, saying that releasing it right now could trigger social unrest. FULL STORY Witness testified in US court about former Tamaulipas governor's Gulf Cartel ties The former state leader, accused by Mexico's Attorney General's Office of ties to organized crime, illicit enrichment and tax fraud, has cartel links dating back to 2004, according to testimony in a U.S. case. FULL STORY Bill Gates: Mexico should bet on education, not oil The Microsoft founder said in an interview that he would urge President López Obrador to invest in the nation's educational institutions rather than fossil fuels. FULL STORY Monarch butterfly numbers in Mexico down by 26% Illegal logging and climate change contributed to the reduction in the number of monarch butterflies overwintering here in 2020-2021. FULL STORY OPINION Texas freeze heats up López Obrador’s energy self-sufficiency plans Crazy as it sounds, the Texas freeze was manna from heaven for President López Obrador’s nationalistic energy ambitions, Jude Webber writes. FULL STORY MEXICO LIFE Let your imagination run wild at Villa Felicidad’s idyllic stone fairyland  Ancient volcanic ash flow likely gave this Jalisco site fascinating fumaroles — rock structures that look like columns, tree stumps, and more, John Pint writes. FULL STORY MEXICO LIFE Travel YouTuber looks off the beaten path for his Mexican adventures Texas native Blake Wilkinson came to Guadalajara two years ago to be a snowbird, but he found his dream documenting his new life online, David Webb writes. FULL STORY

• Not so fast: governments put brakes on private schools’ plan to reopen  • Music and dancing turn vaccination into a lively affair in Mexico City  • Amazon to build new distribution center in México state

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Hola! If you are a 'family' group and would like to use the cinema for your own activity please, come and talk to me. We can even do Karaoke. Limited number of people of course. ¡Hola! Si es un grupo 'familiar' y le gustaría usar el cine para su propia actividad, por favor, venga a hablar conmigo. Incluso podemos hacer Karaoke. Número limitado de personas, por supuesto.

 

Just for FUN! Airline commercials from the 1970s - 1980s

 

Exigen mejorar servicio de telefonía e internet en la costa oaxaqueña El Imparcial de Oaxaca Restauranteros, hoteleros y prestadores de servicios de Zipolite, gestionan en coordinación con la autoridad local, la intermediación del gobierno ...

 https://imparcialoaxaca.mx/costa/510400/exigen-mejorar-servicio-de-telefonia-e-internet-en-la-costa-oaxaquena/

Exigen mejorar servicio de telefonía e internet en la costa oaxaqueña El Imparcial de Oaxaca Restauranteros, hoteleros y prestadores de servicios de Zipolite, gestionan en coordinación con la autoridad local, la intermediación del gobierno ...

Ante las persistentes fallas de telefonía celular e internet que afectan a usuarios, piden ... NVI Noticias Cabe referir que Zipolite no es el único lugar con fallas en la telefonía celular e internet, pues toda la Costa y en particular Pochutla, Tonameca y ...

 

Ante las persistentes fallas de telefonía celular e internet que afectan a usuarios, piden ... NVI Noticias Cabe referir que Zipolite no es el único lugar con fallas en la telefonía celular e internet, pues toda la Costa y en particular Pochutla, Tonameca y ...

Patricia pacheco

Wed, 02/24/2021 - 10:10

Faced with the persistent cell phone and internet failures that affect users, they ask for the intervention of authorities

SAN PEDRO POCHUTLA, Oaxaca.- Faced with the persistent cell phone and internet failures that affect users and service providers, and given the growing tourist projection of Zipolite at the national and international level, local authorities manage with the intermediation of the state government, the immediate attention to the problem and improvement of the telephone network infrastructure before the Telmex company.

In the framework of the first Ordinary Session of the Tourism Advisory Council convened by the Secretariat of Tourism of the State of Oaxaca, and before representatives of the telephone company in Oaxaca, the Tourism Commissioner of San Pedro Pochutla, Luis Felipe García Arvea and president Zipolite's committee of service providers, Jair Flores, urged that the problem of solitary confinement and persistent deficiencies in internet and telephone service be resolved as soon as possible, and requested the installation of a fiber optic network in the area.

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Destination with tourist projection, but without internet

Taking as a background various requests to Telmex from the Zipolite agent, Antonio García, which have not received a favorable response, and with a census of almost a hundred establishments affected by telephone and internet failures, the Secretary of Tourism, Juan Carlos Rivera Castellanos, pledged to help directly so that the requests are favorably addressed.

"Despite the projection of the destination at an international level and being in the intermediate connection between Mazunte and Huatulco, we do not have adequate infrastructure for a good service, or fiber optics, before which the secretary (Juan Carlos Rivera) He promised to intervene and follow up on the issue ”, explained the Tourism Commissioner.

It should be noted that Zipolite is not the only place with cell phone and internet failures, since the entire Coast and in particular Pochutla, Tonameca and Huatulco frequently suffer from the total absence of the signal for several hours, which affects thousands of users and businesses.

Equipment improvements and refolder

Luis Felipe García explained that before the request for the provision of equipment for lifeguards, the state official promised to manage an ATV and aquamoto to streamline the work of rescuers.

Likewise, authorities asked that Caminos y Aeropistas de Oaxaca (CAO) resume as soon as possible the work of re-folding the local Puerto Ángel-Zipolite-San Antonio highway, as it is a road that connects the main tourist destinations of the coastal strip that correspond to the municipalities of Pochutla and Tonameca.

Given the positioning of Zipolite as the most important nudist beach in Mexico, which is reflected in an accelerated media projection and in the visit of characters such as the undersecretary of health Hugo López Gatell, which has recently led to an intense exposure of this destination On the beach, the entity's Secretary of Tourism urged representatives of the local government to intensify prevention measures to avoid further infections of COVID-19.

Covid-19: From a beach in Mexico, nomadic dreams of return Middle East Eye An actual lockdown was never implemented in Zipolite, but checkpoints were installed on either side of the village, and I was issued an ID that allowed ...

 

Covid-19: From a beach in Mexico, nomadic dreams of return Middle East Eye An actual lockdown was never implemented in Zipolite, but checkpoints were installed on either side of the village, and I was issued an ID that allowed ...

Covid-19: From a beach in Mexico, nomadic dreams of return

Belen Fernandez

25 February 2021 13:29 UTC | Last update: 3 hours 28 mins ago

It's uncharming to whine about being trapped on a stretch of pristine Pacific coast while the rest of humanity dealt with the apocalypse

A woman walks on the beach as the sun sets in Zipolite, Mexico, in 2017 (AFP)

Many years ago at a Chinese restaurant in some city or another, I acquired a fortune cookie containing a fortune inscribed with the verb "to return". At the time, I was in the midst of a 17-year bout of mad itinerancy that had commenced in 2003, when I had abandoned the United States in favour of darting between countries and fleeing like the plague the notion that I might ever subscribe to a sedentary existence.

The fortune would eventually end up among the heap of belongings I deposited at a friend’s house in the southwestern Turkish city of Fethiye, which, appropriately, would become one of my regular stops as I transited the globe. Sorting through my possessions on each return trip, I’d come across the slip of paper, which provided the requisite amount of consistency to offset my continuous motion.

In 2020, the coronavirus plague put a stop to my returns - and to movement in general. I had travelled in March to the coastal village of Zipolite in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, where I was meant to spend 12 days before dashing off again. Nearly a year later, I’m still here.

Checkpoints installed

An actual lockdown was never implemented in Zipolite, but checkpoints were installed on either side of the village, and I was issued an ID that allowed me to visit the nearby town of Pochutla once a week for groceries and banking.

As luck would have it, one of the checkpoints was placed directly in front of the apartment I had rented and was overseen by a rotating agglomeration of civilian volunteers, police and marines - whose predilection for stationing themselves and their armaments next to my front door resulted in a near-heart attack every time I opened it.

A smattering of incidents aside - such as when I was not permitted to enter my house without a face mask, impassioned appeals to logic notwithstanding - the checkpoint was, relatively speaking, hardly oppressive. I also had an ever-present crowd of people on hand to assist in the performance of domestic tasks, such as hot sauce jar-opening and wasp-slaying.

I could no longer run away from whatever it was I had spent the past two decades running away from - the idea of mortality itself, perhaps

And yet, claustrophobia quickly set in, the thick rope stretched across the road offering a constant reminder that I was more or less stuck. I could no longer run away from whatever it was I had spent the past two decades running away from - the idea of mortality itself, perhaps. Instead, I was suddenly confined to a place whose very name, Zipolite, is rumoured to mean playa de la muerte, or “beach of death”.

In an effort to create an illusion of movement - and to expel the djinn that had apparently taken up residence in my idle self - I ran in frantic circles around the football field, and paced up and down the beach. Attempts to focus on the physical beauty of my surroundings were futile, and my mind manically ricocheted between Beirut, Sarajevo, Addis Ababa, Dushanbe and all of my other destinations once upon a time.

I would wake up sobbing in the middle of the night about the most bizarrely trivial of memories: a staircase in Turkey, a room key in Isfahan, the highway sign for the Lebanese town of Barja that someone had amended to Barjalona.

Capitalism-ravaged planet

Of course, it was decidedly uncharming to whine about being trapped on a stretch of pristine Pacific coast while the rest of humanity dealt with the apocalypse. Crying over Lebanese road signs became an even more questionable pastime on 4 August, when the Beirut port explosion devastated Lebanon’s capital city - as though the pandemic and economic self-combustion hadn’t already been devastating enough.

Lebanon, incidentally, also has a history of checkpoints, albeit of a far less benign nature than the one erected in front of my house in Zipolite. A defining feature of the national landscape, checkpoints notoriously played host to ID card-based sectarian killings during the civil war, which lasted from 1975 until 1990.

I was suddenly confined to a place whose very name, Zipolite, is rumoured to mean playa de la muerte, or “beach of death” (Courtesy of Belen Fernandez)

Nowadays, they function more as a veneer of security, competence and control on the part of the state, which continues to be dominated by parasitic sectarian civil warlords concerned only with the perpetuation of their stranglehold on power - and not, say, with preventing massive port explosions or allowing the Lebanese masses a chance to emerge from the socioeconomic misery in which they are trapped.

Indeed, a brutal boundary - a metaphorical checkpoint, if you will - separates the haves from the have-nots, as it does throughout the rest of this capitalism-ravaged planet. The pandemic has simply confirmed the sickness of the whole arrangement.

Just across Lebanon’s southern border, meanwhile, ubiquitous Israeli military checkpoints have long made life hell for Palestinians, whose rights and dignity they violate in every possible way, sometimes lethally - and all with the blessing of Israel’s partner in crime, the United States of America.

Trips down memory lane

As I note in my forthcoming book Checkpoint Zipolite: Quarantine in a Small Place, Israel has “strived to perfect its repressive technologies and conquer global security industry and surveillance markets accordingly, and checkpoints have proven handy testing grounds (as has Gaza, where the ability to periodically slaughter thousands of Palestinians while suffering negligible casualties in return surely speaks to the efficacy of one’s armaments)”.

To be sure, if anyone knows about being trapped, it’s the residents of the Gaza Strip, otherwise known as the world’s “largest open-air prison”. And Covid-19 has only made things more asphyxiating for Palestinians in Gaza, whom Israel forcibly confines to overcrowded, unsanitary conditions while also denying them necessary medical supplies.

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Palestinian refugees abroad, too, are well acquainted with the feeling of being stuck, many of them in squalid camps. Denied the right of return and condemned to seemingly perpetual limbo, they can only mentally inhabit villages and homes obliterated or stolen decades ago - passing along detailed memories of olive and citrus trees to ensuing generations, and, oftentimes, even their former housekeys.

From my obscenely privileged position of semi-limbo in Zipolite, I myself continue to conduct schizophrenic trips down my own memory lane, and to wonder if and when I’ll be returning anywhere. But as the coronavirus pandemic relentlessly exposes the ills of a global system predicated on inequality, war and ecological destruction, one thing is clear: a post-pandemic return to business as usual should be avoided like the plague.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Belen Fernandez

Belen Fernandez is the author of Exile: Rejecting America and Finding the World and The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work. She is a contributing editor at Jacobin magazine.