The safe way to get back to business.

FAQs

• What do I need to do in order to travel to the UK?

  All international arrivals to the UK must quarantine for 10 days on arrival and take covid-19 tests on day 2 and day 8. Before an individual travels to the UK, they must:

  • Take a coronavirus (COVID-19) test and get a negative result during the 3 days before you travel
  • Book and Pay for a travel test package, which will include COVID-19 tests to be taken on or before day 2 and on or after day 8 of the quarantine period
  • Complete a passenger locator form with details of where they will home quarantine on arrival and the travel test package booking reference number

  For more information and guidance please visit: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-quarantine-when-you-arrive-in-england

• What are the different types of COVID-19 tests?

  There are two main types of test:

  Antigent Test: this tests for the presence of a virus in a sample. There are ranges of tests in this category from ‘gold standard’ tests that are done by an accredited lab to more of screening solutions that require little to no equipment and are able to provide results in 8-30 minutes

  Antibody Tests: this tests whether someone has developed antibodies and had the virus previously.

• What does an antibody test involve?

  There are two different types of Antibody tests:

  1) Lab based Antibody test- a test kit is used to gather blood from a patient which is then tested in the lab. These are usually referred to as ELISA tests. They are extremely accurate and able to let you know if you had the virus and developed antibodies as a result of this.

  2) Blood prick tests- these test kits can be used by trained professional to determine at point of care whether you had the virus. A small blood prick is taken and used in a cartridge to do the diagnostic.

• Can you test people at my workplace?

  Yes, we provide a number of solutions from regular lab based testing to developing regular screening programmes.

  In the first instance we propose designing and agreeing clinical governance approach to workplace testing and then we provide a solution to support this.

• Can you offer remote-only testing?

  Yes, we have a number of remote solutions if you decide you only want to do ad-hoc testing.

• Covid-19 Mutation

  Current mutation of SARS Cov-2: D614G SARS COV-2

  Mutated position by SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphism)

  Nucleotide change at 23,403 base of RNA from adenosine (A) to guanine (G)

  Mutated at D614 on the Spike Protein (SP)

  enhancing the binding affinity to ACE2 receptor

  no mutation on the nucleocapid protein (NP) of Sars Cov-2

  In summary this has no impact on our ability to successfully detect covid-19

• Refund Policy

  The Agilis Health refund policy is as follows:

  • If the sample pack has not been dispatched at the time of cancellation a full refund can be offered
  • If the sample pack has been dispatched, the pack can be returned and the order cancelled with a fee of £50 plus VAT being applied. The refund will be offered, minus the cancellation fee of £50 plus VAT
  • Once the sample pack has been used to take a sample, or has been tampered with, full costs remain and no cancellation or refund is available.
  • Where applicable, referring to the above conditions, refund amounts will appear in your bank account 7 days after receipt of the returned sealed untampered sample pack

• Test to Release – best time to book tests

  Please note if you are booking Test to Release, the earliest that the sample can be collected is during the course of day 5 of your quarantine, with day 1 commencing from the time that you arrive in the UK. This means that you are able to book a test on day 1 of quarantine, get pack in time and arrange a video call appointment for day 5. This would allow us to get the sample to the lab the day following your test and then issue your result typically within 12-18 hours of it getting to the lab (guaranteed within 24 hours of the sample getting to the lab).

• Fit to Fly

  Many governments and airlines require that a test for COVID-19 be taken prior to travelling. The rules differ by government and airline and some accept antigen tests, some only accept PCR tests and there is little consistency as to the timeline requirement for the test result, but typically it is 48-72 hours prior to travel. Please check specific requirements prior to booking the Fit to Fly test.

• Where is the clinic?

  Typically Agilis operates a home service. Our service includes a video call with one of our nurses that is able to guide you through the sample collection process. As such we are able to offer our service nationwide.

• Further Guidance for Test to Release

  Please note that if you are travelling to the UK from a country on the red list, then you are not eligible to opt into the Test to Release scheme.

  You can see the red list on this link: Coronavirus (COVID-19): red list travel ban countries – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

  From 4am on 9th January, should you be travelling to the UK from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Eswatini, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho, Mozambique, Angola, Mauritius or Seychelles, then as per government advice you should self-isolate for 10 days upon entry to the UK and should not take a test to release test during this period.

  In addition, from 4am on 15th January, should you be travelling to the UK from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela, Cape Verde, Portugal (including Madeira and the Azores) and Panama, then as per government advice you should self-isolate for 10 days upon entry to the UK and should not take a test to release test during this period.

  As of 4am on 29th January, the same travel restrictions as above will apply for Burundi, UAE and Rwanda and anyone who has travelled from any of these countries should not participate in the test to release scheme.