How could you take a nucleic acid test and an IgM antibody test and have it certified by an embassy 48 hours before traveling?

Upvote:1

PCR tests take a few hours to process, so 48 hours is more than sufficient if there aren't bottlenecks in the test lab. For example, a Seattle company called Atlas Genomics advertises the following:

We provide travel testing with same day results. Please call xxx.xxx.xxxx
Atlas Covid-19 tests are being accepted by Hawaii due to our partnership with Discovery Health who is on the list of Trusted Partners.

Out of interest, I gave Atlas Genomics a call and they said they can do a same-day test Mon-Fri for $149, as long as you show up for the test before 12pm. So you could probably get tested on a Monday morning, email the Chinese consulate on Monday evening, get a confirmation Tuesday afternoon and fly out Wednesday morning - around 48 hours after taking your test.

You should be able to locate a similar lab with premium test processing in your area. Depending on the country/state, even free testing might be fast enough - my own free COVID test here in Seattle took less than 48 hours to process.

Upvote:2

Are these requirements even doable?

Yes if your area has decent COVID-19 testing facilities.

As JonathanReez mentioned, PCR results can be obtained within the same day.

The same applies to anti-body tests, e.g. from https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/coronavirus-testing-basics:

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E.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7177139/:

The ALLTEST 2019-nCoV IgG/IgM Rapid Test Cassette is a rapid LFIA (turn-around time within 15 min) that uses a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 N protein to detect both IgM and IgG antibodies.

https://www.fda.gov/media/139792/download:

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FYI: COVID-19 Testing FAQs from the American Society for Microbiology (mirror).

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