About 80 passengers and crew a day are already making use of the first coronavirus testing centre at any UK airport, just three days after it opened.
Most are bound for Hong Kong, on one of the three flights a day from Heathrow, although 15 yesterday were on a “repatriation flight” to Australia.
The £80 tests have to be booked and can be taken up to four hours before departure at the facility in the Terminal Five arrivals hall.
Once passengers “check in” they are handed a bar code and test kit. From there they enter one of nine cubicles for a back of the throat and nose swab.
No-one would describe it as a pleasant experience, although my excellent nurse David Spicer gave me the option of holding up a hand if the process became too uncomfortable.
Most passengers are out of the centre within a couple of minutes and then have to wait up to an hour and a half — although more typically about 60 to 70 minutes — while the swabs are analysed. The results can be given as a paper certificate or downloaded from a website.
