As the article mentions, in many countries - especially in Europe - Covid tests are ubiquitious and cheap (or even free).
Here in Austria you can just walk into a pharmacy and get tested for Covid (either rapid antigen test or PCR test). The test result automatically shows up in the "Grüner Pass" app (https://gruenerpass.gv.at/) - or can be downloaded from a link. All of this is free of cost.
When someone says that these tests are "free" with respect to availability to the public, they mean that they are free to the citizen/consumer at the point of sale. There is no out of pocket expense to get tested.
In the U.S. most Walgreens have free rapid-result PCR tests for anyone (ID Now by Abbott).
I live in a Canadian town of >100,000 just north of the border, and here I can't find anywhere that does rapid-result PCR testing for non-symptomatic people.
The only rapid-result non-symptomatic testing I can find here are antigen tests, which ironically Canada doesn't consider a diagnostic test and isn't accepted for travel.
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[ 0.17 ms ] story [ 28.3 ms ] threadHere in Austria you can just walk into a pharmacy and get tested for Covid (either rapid antigen test or PCR test). The test result automatically shows up in the "Grüner Pass" app (https://gruenerpass.gv.at/) - or can be downloaded from a link. All of this is free of cost.
But of course, that's not how we generally use the word.
I live in a Canadian town of >100,000 just north of the border, and here I can't find anywhere that does rapid-result PCR testing for non-symptomatic people.
The only rapid-result non-symptomatic testing I can find here are antigen tests, which ironically Canada doesn't consider a diagnostic test and isn't accepted for travel.