How Covid-19 virus tests fail travellers

Covid-19 tests for those wishing to travel are a hassle and cost far more than on the continent.

PCR testing at an airport in Mexico
Your holiday could prove cheaper than PCR tests
(Image credit: © Luis Barron/Eyepix Group/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

If Matt Hancock doesn’t stop you going on holiday this summer then the cost of Covid-19 tests just might. A negative PCR test (the type that must be sent to a laboratory for analysis) is required for entry into many countries and on return to the UK, but the costs can rack up quickly. Providers on the government’s official list for England and Northern Ireland offer tests costing between £42 and £399. The median price is £100.

A round trip to a green-list country is likely to include at least an outbound PCR test, a lateral-flow test (the ones that give a result on the spot in 30 minutes) before return and then a second PCR test on day two of return. Those quarantining after travel to amber countries need to shell out for two PCR tests on day two and day eight. Young children are exempt from some of the rules, but for large families the costs can still be eye-watering.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.