Vermont’s Burlington International Airport is the latest airport to begin offering on-site COVID-19 tests.
Healthcare delivery company Garnet Health has opened a testing facility at the airport, which will offer rapid COVID-19 tests, ddPCR (Droplet Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests, and rapid flu diagnostic tests.
"We have seen an increase in requests for COVID-19 testing from people traveling in and out of Vermont," Co-Founder, President,and CEO of Garnet Health, Ryan Ferris, said in a statement this week. "Opening a location at the airport to serve travelers and the greater Burlington community is a natural addition to our work addressing the public health crisis due to the pandemic."
The testing center is open from Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Operating hours will expand to seven days per week later this year. Travelers can make an appointment online before visiting. Without insurance, an antigen test at the airport testing center will cost $125 and a PCR test will cost $175. Results from PCR tests will be available within 36 to 48 hours.
However, a negative test result won’t allow travelers to bypass Vermont’s quarantine guidelines.
"You'll still need to quarantine," the airport’s director of aviation, Gene Richards, told the Burlington Free Press. "You'll still need to follow all the rules."
Current restrictions in Vermont require all out-of-state arrivals (except those from a few exempt counties in the Northeast) to quarantine for 14 days after arrival. After seven days of isolation, out-of-state travelers have the option to take a PCR test and end their quarantine a week early.
Garnet, in partnership with the Vermont Department of Health, has opened and operated pop-up testing sites around the state since April. This testing facility is located outside of the airport, in a building just north of the terminal.
The airport says it is the first of its size to operate a COVID-19 testing center on-site. Burlington is following the lead of several other major airports including Newark, JFK, and Tampa.
Cailey Rizzo is a contributing writer for Travel + Leisure, currently based in Brooklyn. When in a new city, she's usually out to discover under-the-radar art, culture, and secondhand stores. No matter her location, you can find her on Twitter, on Instagram or at caileyrizzo.com.
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