"If people are prepared, they'll be fine," he said.
#WALGREENS COVID VACCINE NYS FREE#
But he cautions there are no guarantees for non-paying customers.Īs a precaution, Gelbart advises travellers to book their free tests a couple of days in advance. The company has already provided free tests to thousands of Canadian travellers, including snowbirds, Gelbart said.īeeperMD typically provides test results within 36 hours and will do everything it can to ensure travellers get their results within Canada's required 72-hour window, he said. reopened today and some Albertans are eager to travel, even if that means waiting two to three hours at the Coutts-Sweet Grass crossing.īeeperMD services customers in New York City and most regions in Florida. (Individuals who book a same-day test for one person, however, must pay a booking fee.)ĭuration 1:16 The border between Canada and the U.S. "They want people to get tested," said Jeremy Gelbart, co-founder of BeeperMD, a COVID-19 testing company that comes to people's homes - or hotel rooms - to provide free PCR tests. It has put measures in place to make low or no-cost COVID-19 tests available to everyone in the U.S., including those who don't have U.S. The tests that Hutcheon and other Canadian travellers have received aren't actually free, but instead funded by the U.S. "We printed them and took them with us to the airport and it was all smooth sailing." Why are the tests free? "They took the swab and about two hours later, the results appeared in my email inbox," he said. Hutcheon said they faced no issues when they drove their rental car to Walgreens the following day to take the test at the pharmacy's drive-thru testing site. The couple had booked their tests online, listing their hotel when asked to provide an address. At Walgreens, they each took a self-administered free Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) test, which is listed as an accepted test by the Canadian government.
destination.īut the stars aligned for Hutcheon and his wife, Colleen McMechan. However, there are caveats: Travellers may not be guaranteed to get their test results in time, and may not find free tests at their U.S.
Ian Hutcheon and Colleen McMechan, of Calgary, each got free COVID-19 tests at a Walgreens location in Arizona last month before returning to Canada. "It's so easy to get it for free," he said. and written about the topic for his site. "It's mind-blowing to think that people are paying $200 for those tests," said Andrew D'Amours, who is the co-founder of the travel information website, Flytrippers.ĭ'Amours, of Trois-Rivières, Que., has taken three free tests in the U.S. border, who complain the tests can be cost-prohibitive.īut CBC News interviewed six Canadians who recently travelled to the U.S., and got a free molecular test at a pharmacy or a clinic before their return to Canada. And those molecular tests - such as the popular PCR test - can cost hundreds of dollars.Īs a result, Canada's testing requirement has sparked protests from politicians and tourism groups on both sides of the Canada-U.S. Travellers entering Canada must provide proof of a negative molecular COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of their departing flight or planned arrival at the land border. "I was a little incredulous, but he insisted." "I happened to ask to speak to the pharmacist, who said, 'Oh, we can test you for free,'" said Hutcheon. When Ian Hutcheon inquired about getting a COVID-19 test last month at a Walgreens pharmacy in Gold Canyon, Ariz., before his flight home to Calgary, he got a pleasant surprise.
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