It's hard to get a PCR test done, and it's almost impossible to find Rapid Antigen/lateral flow tests. The Australian government and media keep saying that this is a "worldwide problem", but it's hard to know what to believe anymore.
Is there a shortage of rapid tests in your country? How hard is it to get a PCR test?
Rapid tests are sold out at most pharmacies. When we thought my wife might have it we didn't bother looking.
I work at Cornell University and I can schedule a test at one of several centers on campus the next day at a specific time like Disney's Fastpass. It is fast and convenient.
Well, I used to be able to schedule a test like that, but I turned up positive and I'm not allowed to go back to get tested for 90 days because they say I might test positive despite being non-infectious.
The Tompkins County Health Department together with the hospital runs a highly efficient operation at the mall, right next to the mass vaccination center. It's more hassle than Cornell but still easy. It's free too.
> Is there a shortage of rapid tests in your country?
No. Available in large numbers at my local supermarket for 3 euro a pop. Multipacks tend to work out to 2 euro each. There's no subsidy in operation; the government threatened a subsidy, and the retailers immediately dropped their prices from 6 euro or so. (I'm kind of hoping the government use this newly-discovered super-power more for high-margin over-the-counter medical stuff...)
I suspect that the shortages in some countries (the US and apparently Australia) vs the abundance in Europe are largely based on what has been approved by the regulators. The tests I get these days are made in China; they're a licensed copy of a German test.
If you're a close contact, the health service will send you a pack of five for free.
Over the holidays (when omicron was starting to peak in Ireland and a lot of people were traveling and socializing) there were sporadic availability problems, but they were super-local (eg my local supermarket had none for a week but the pharmacy literally next door to it had loads).
> How hard is it to get a PCR test?
If you're aged under 12 or over 40, easy; sign up on the website and you'll get an appointment. Again, at the peak, this was oversubscribed. If you're between 12 and 40 (and have no comorbidities), you need a positive antigen test before you're allowed book a PCR test (though I would expect this to go away as pressure on the system eases; it was a temporary measure brought in near the peak).
That's health service PCR testing; you can get a private PCR test even if you're 12-40 with no qualification, but you'd have to pay.
Rapid PCR and molecular tests are available through multiple local pharmacies, if you know that they have testing available and you sign up on their site. Results can be had in an hour.
National chain pharmacies (e.g., Walgreens and CVS) also do rapid antigen tests, but I think for PCR and molecular tests they have to send those out to be processed somewhere else, and results can take days to come back.
There are also rapid molecular tests you can buy online, if you’re resourceful. Detect.com has one, but they put up new batches of test kits for sale at 11:00:00am EST, and by 11:00:05am EST they are sold out. They also have test hubs that they sell which also include one test kit (the hub is re-usable), but they are also frequently sold out.
On Amazon.com, you can buy test kits from Lucira, which have a hub that is not re-usable. Those haven’t been sold out, so far as I can tell. But both Detect.com and Lucira tests are rapid molecular, and give you results in about an hour.
Some employers (like Google) are buying test kits for their employees.
The USPS is also going to start distributing test kits at some point in the near future. Haven’t heard much real-world boot-on-the ground results from that effort.
- Rapid test (antigen test by a professional): free in most cases, 22€ otherwise, usually easy to get tested the same day, but lines can be sometimes long if you don't have an appointment
- Self tests: 2-5€, often out of stock.
- PCR tests: free in most cases, 44€ otherwise, may take a few days to have an appointment, plus a day for the results
Anyone can get tested for any reason, but contact cases, prescriptions, and people with symptoms are supposed to have priority.
The incidence rate in France is crazy at the moment, almost 4000, and while I will not say today is the easiest time for getting tested, if you want, you can. If anything, such a high incidence rate means that testing capacity is not that bad. Positivity rate is around 26%.
Government recommendations regarding testing are a huge mess however. They keep changing, they call for self tests that are unavailable, they are different depending on your vaccination status and age, etc...
Recent free government PCR with swab pharmacy took 3 weeks to return results (lol). Private clinics fine, but expensive ~$150+.
No rapid tests kits for purchase, can do at pharmacy or private clinics for inflated prices ~$40 per test. I think 100M kits landed in early Jan, don't know how they're being allocated.
Meanwhile, colleague from Abu Dhabi, UAE has ~$10 PCR tests with less than 12 hour turn around for their surprisingly well managed vaccine passport app. His household has racked up over 500 PCR tests (for travel between emirates), most of it free since beginning of pandemic.
Rapid tests are everywhere (both places you can go and have one done for free, and at-home tests to buy for 2-3€).
Availability of free PCR tests has been an issue, and will very likely be restricted more (before you could get a free PCR if you had a known risk contact or a positive test at home, it sounds like that's only going to be a thing for some groups of people now), which is widely seen as an embarrassing failure of public policy. Private testing places will do paid PCRs, not sure how overbooked or not they are.
Test are available in Pharmacies. Govt is also providing free testing.