Jets lined up on runway

For trips abroad from Heathrow, testing for covid is a vital health protection measure which is being implemented to protect people from the virus. On our travels through to Berlin, we experienced this testing process. So lets focus on the Heathrow day 2 test and how our experience went. The global pandemic has led to a signifcant tightening of travel and health protection measures in order to reduce the risk from the virus.

View from aeroplane into clouds

How Is The Testing Process Being Implemented?

Testing for the virus can be expensive, but the cost to protecting your health far outweighs the costs associated with paying for testing kits and making travel arrangements. The Heathrow day 2 test was amongst some of the most affordable tests that we could find online for Heathrow airport. This is another reason why we were drawn towards this service.

Public health officials have developed a processes that looks at your body’s immune system response to disease. If your body recognizes a virus that it has encountered in the past, then antibodies can be created to fight it off. Thankfully there are a greater number of treatments more widely available for patients in order to fight off and treat the virus.

The advantage of using a rapid test is that it can detect even the most late traces of infection. Most other tests only look for antibody responses that have been previously identified. If someone comes in with a high level of antibody response, he or she might still have active infection. Other tests, however, will not detect the antibody response until after the patient has been infected. We found the Heathrow day 2 test to be highly accurate. Furthermore, the fact that the process is handled by experienced and professional staff throughout gave us plenty of reassurance.

Day 2 Heathrow test

What The Results Mean For Onward Travel

A negative rapid test result will give a negative diagnosis, but does not necessarily mean that you have been protected. You might have been infected without knowing, and positive results from antibody tests will only indicate that there is a chance that you are infected.

Asymptomatic transmission can still occur between people in a variety of different settings. However, on the whole we feel that the testing process and regime which was implemented at the Heathrow day 2 test was highly effective and made into a smooth and hassle-free process. We also found that during our travels we were actually made to feel more confident about travelling thanks to the fact that there were so many health protection measures in place in order to protect our overall health and wellbeing.

If for any reason a traveller does test positive whilst abroad or prior to departure, they will have to self isolate and rearrange travel arrangements. Thankfully on our own excursion we did not run into any of these kinds of difficulties. However, if you are planning on travelling abroad, we would highly recommend that you take out some form of travel insurance in order to mitigate this kind of risk.