Brussels Airport will set up a mobile lab where departing and arriving travellers can be tested for the new coronavirus (Covid-19) from the start of September.
The mobile lab will be set up just outside the airport terminal (departure level) where passengers will have the possibility to have a PCR test taken.
"This way, anyone returning from a red zone can be tested immediately upon arrival at Brussels Airport," Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company, said in a press release. "Departing passengers can also be tested there. With a quick test, the results will be available within 3 hours."
The tests will be analysed in the mobile lab. For a regular test, results are available within an average of nine hours. People wanting a quick test will have results within three hours.
"The aim is that everyone who needs a test, will be able to get one at Brussels Airport," spokesperson Ihsane Chioua Lekhli told The Brussels Times. "This could also be the case for travellers returning from orange zones, but the details are still being discussed," she added.
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Additionally, people who have been contacted by contact tracers and received a QR code to get tested because they have been in contact with an infected person, will also be able to get tested at the airport.
"The lab will also be open to people living in neighbouring municipalities who need to get tested as well," Chiou Lekhli said. "They do not have to travel, they just need to show the code."
The price of the test depends on the situation of the traveller. Anyone returning from a red zone - meaning those who are required to be tested when back in Belgium - has to pay the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance rate of €46.81.
For anyone else, a standard test costs €67, and a rapid test for quick results costs €135.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
