Nordics-based travel assistance organisation SOS International has
launched a coronavirus testing service that promises to deliver results within
15 minutes. The service is available at an SOS International clinic in
Copenhagen, with another in Aalborg in the Jutland region of Denmark scheduled
to start next week. Tests must be booked online and cost 375 Danish kroner (£46).
Corporate clients also can arrange to have employees tested at their own
offices.
Users of the test receive a Covid-19 "passport" declaring
they have tested negative. According to SOS International, false negatives are
not possible with the test, which was produced by French company BioSynex, although
up to four per cent of positive tests may be incorrect.
The emergence of rapid testing could prove particularly useful for travellers
to countries that require a negative test certificate to permit entry or avoid
quarantine on arrival. The maximum allowable period before arrival when a test
could have been performed often is 48 hours (such as some states in Germany) or
72 hours (including Russia and Japan). This has made entering those countries
for short business trips very difficult because until now commercially
available coronavirus tests typically have had a turnaround time of 72 hours.
SOS International is owned by 13 of the largest insurance companies in
the Nordic region.