Most countries are asking passengers to do another PCR test upon arrival

Oct 13, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Kaieteur News – I need to bring attention to some serious flaws in the recent protocols for arriving passengers as they have been relayed by the Ministry of Health. Clarification is needed in some areas; in particular as it applies to the PCR Test that can be taken in a departing country 72hrs before a flight to Guyana.
The new regulation states, that (a) The Test has to be submitted to the authorities here in Guyana, (b) The test will be validated as an actual PCR Test and then Guyana will pass an instruction to the airline, so that (c) they can book the flight.
Here are the Questions, remembering that the intended flight is expected to occur within just three days (72) hrs…(The flight has not been booked yet, as it’s all dependant on a response from the authorities in Guyana.)
Question 1. The submittance of a PCR test is in what format? An email with snapshot of PCR Test results? And to whom? Website information on this issue is appreciated.
Question 2: Most importantly, what is the guaranteed TURNAROUND time, that is, how long are authorities in Guyana going to take to validate the test as a genuine PCR Test? One hour? Two hours? Two days, and actually pass the required information on to the airline? The answer to this question is key as a passenger will need to know when to call the airline to book the flight; especially if the departure date is in three days.
Question 3: A full flight has over 150 passengers. Does the Ministry already have the personnel in place, to contact all the airlines coming into Guyana, promptly, in the event of a deluge of 72hr PCR Tests, so a flight can be booked?
Question 4. Assuming multiple International flights are flying in, on one particular day, which Airline does the Ministry know to pass on the results of the validation to?
Question 5. Most people in this day and age, book flights ONLINE. Are we now to call the Airlines? No Airline has call-agents to anticipate a large volume of calls. How will this work if there is a heavy volume of calls and we can’t get through for hours? I assume that all the International Airlines, already made changes to their website, will be able to process online bookings, and know that they already have info on particular passengers that their PCR Test is valid. (For those passengers not able to get thru to agents)
Summary – The way this policy is written, an intended passenger cannot call the airline of their choice, and book a flight, UNTIL the airline has the go ahead to do so. There will be a backlog. I don’t see how this goes smoothly.
I am not aware of any country that is taking the additional step of validating PCR Tests, though I understand why. It impractically complicates the entire process. What most countries are doing is to get ALL arriving passengers to take another test, once they arrive at the destination.

Yours truly
Chi Kansi

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