Travel after Covid recovery

Hi,

Has anyone recently recovered from Covid and then flown to the US? We're hoping to travel at Christmas but won't be able to take a PCR test before travel as we'll still test positive for Covid then (it will be within the 90 days from our positive Covid test). The US says we need a letter from a healthcare provider proving a recovery from Covid but our GP surgery has just confirmed that they won't provide said letter. Not sure how we get around this! Any advice warmly welcomed. Thank you!

We're hoping to travel at Christmas but won't be able to take a PCR test before travel as we'll still test positive for Covid then (it will be within the 90 days from our positive Covid test)

You need to check with your GP - but I would expect you to test 'clear' (negative) within 14 days of no symptoms - some suggest 10 days. You would still expect antibodies in 90 days - but that's good - shows you are still actively able to attack a new infection.

You could still test positive more than 14 days after symptoms go (or after a positive test if it's asymptomatic) - but you could try it out with lateral flow tests before committing to a PCR. 90 days is a very wide estimate. Our own quarantine rules (England) have set a 14 day limit for quarantine.

I think there may be some confusion about the 90 day testing window including at your GP, although I'm not sure it helps your specific situation.

The reason that testing does not take place within 90 days of a positive Covid test is not because you can still be infectious for Covid (assuming you are only infected once) but because there is an increased risk of a false positive result and it would lead to people isolating unnecessarily.

So you could well take the test within 90 days and it would be negative in which case you can travel. The problem is that you might test positive, it would likely be a false positive, and you would be in a difficult position (Which is why the recommendation is the letter from a healthcare provider, but if your doctor won't give you this, I'm not sure who could).