The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated the requirement for those who want to enter the North American country by air. These antigen tests are already available in some Salvadoran laboratories.
The United States government reported through an official statement updated Feb. 19 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that “all airborne passengers in the United States must submit a negative result in the COVID detection test. -19, or evidence of recovery ”from the virus.
This test must be performed within three days prior to travel to the United States, and the passenger must provide the relevant documentation before boarding. “The airline will confirm the negative result of the COVID-19 detection tests or the recovery documentation of all passengers before boarding,” the CDC reports on its official website.
SEE: Rapid tests to detect COVID-19 will now be available in El Salvador
In the section on what types of Sars-CoV-2 detection tests are acceptable to meet this order, the US government is maintaining the Real Time Polymerase Reaction Chain (RT-PCR) in effect, but at the North Embassy site -American land in El Salvador, US immigration authorities reportedly accept this too rapid antigen tests, which have been available for sale and import in El Salvador since Feb. 14, according to the National Directorate of Medicines.
Some Salvadoran labs offering the test
There are already labs that have these antigen tests for detecting COVID-19 available to the public, including the following: Max Bloch (costs $ 80 and provides results in 4 to 6 hours); Diagnostic Center Laboratory (price $ 60, 2-4 hours delivery); and Laboratorios Analiza ($ 40, results in one hour).
These rapid tests are also performed with a nasopharyngeal swab, as is the case with RT-PCR screening. They take a sample of the person’s mucous membrane, a sample that is placed in a test similar to a pregnancy test, where there are reagents that will tell whether the result is positive or negative for the presence of virus proteins.
Important: This test detects traces of the virus protein, but does not determine whether COVID-19 is active in the individual.
In other words, if a quick test gives a positive result, it doesn’t necessarily mean the person is infected, but it does indicate that they’ve had the disease before, as there are antibodies to Sars-CoV-2 in their body.
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