Anyone experienced Travelling to Thailand with a negative PCR test and testing positive upon arrival?
Answer summary
The discussion centers around travelers who enter Thailand with negative PCR tests but later test positive upon arrival. Comments reveal a significant trend where many travelers report positive tests despite prior negative results. Some share personal experiences of testing positive after multiple negative tests taken before departure, suggesting that testing standards can vary significantly by country. Others mention the prevalence of false positives and advocate for demanding a second test upon arrival to avoid unnecessary complications and costs.
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are you on about tests in general or thailand. I just did a job in Singapore with 30 men for 6 months and we had two tests a week all negative thats over 1600 tests.
That just happened to me in Indonesia. I came from Dubai, where I took 2 PCR tests in the week prior to flying (last one 48 hours before departure), both negative, then positive at the airport in Indonesia. It's important to be aware if the country you're going to has tougher PCR tests. Indonesia, for example, was using CT levels of 40, which is higher than many other countries (they just yesterday dropped it to 35). I don't know what it was in Dubai, but the PCR test there was quite lax, they just put one swab up one nostril for half a second. In Indonesia, they do both nostrils + mouth/throat, for 2-3 seconds. It's also possible that I caught it on the airplane, as I took 2 flights, connecting through Sri Lanka.
There are many dozens of posts in the Thai travel groups of this happening. You won't see them in this group focused on visa advice, but there are at least a dozen very popular Thai pandemic-related travel groups on Facebook and your situation is posted about almost every day or two. Everyone must have a negative test to travel, so all positive arrivals are testing so upon arrival or on the Day 5 test. So far this month, close to 5000 travellers entering Thailand have tested positive this way, according to government statistics. I don't know if group rules allow me to post links to any of them, so you may have to do a bunch of searching, but I'll try as a comment below, and see if it is allowed.
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