PCR test

[believe123]

Good morning,  MSC says test has to be NAAT or antigen. My Drs office has PCR. I call MSC and they basically read from a script. I look online and I guess I’m not smart enough to understand if a NAAT and PCR test are the same. One article sounds like it is, the next doesn’t 🤦‍♀️. Can anyone shed some light on this for me please. Appreciate it! 

[9876]

I believe they are the same.  I know I used a PCR for MCS last year.  Ask your doctor's office but I think you would be good.  

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/naats.html

 

 

[cruiseguyinorl]

Yes. A PCR test is a type of NAAT test.

Bret

[Safe77]

Is there such a thing as an at-home RT-PCR test? We're sailing on the Divina on November 4th from Miami to either the Bahamas/Caribbean or the Southern Caribbean (depending on which MSC call-taker I speak with). Southern Caribbean apparently requires the RT-PCR test while Bahamas/Caribbean does not. We're traveling the day prior to sailing, so that doesn't leave us much time if we have to go to a physician's office to get the test. I need help, please, as I have never had to get this kind of test before and MSC is giving conflicting information. Thanks!!

[Cruising Cindy Lou]

2 hours ago, Safe77 said:

Is there such a thing as an at-home RT-PCR test? We're sailing on the Divina on November 4th from Miami to either the Bahamas/Caribbean or the Southern Caribbean (depending on which MSC call-taker I speak with). Southern Caribbean apparently requires the RT-PCR test while Bahamas/Caribbean does not. We're traveling the day prior to sailing, so that doesn't leave us much time if we have to go to a physician's office to get the test. I need help, please, as I have never had to get this kind of test before and MSC is giving conflicting information. Thanks!!

Maybe you could go to Walgreens and talk to someone there.  They could probably help you finding out if there is an home test for this.  But with a home test you still at this point have to use a online company to watch you take the test.  Then they will send you an email with the official results you can use at the port.  Or atleast that is my understanding on how it works. 

[believe123]

I was told by MSC today that it used to say antigen or  PCR and they changed it to NAAT or antigen. She told me to make sure it was antigen or NAAT. Well, we went today and they gave us a PCR, flu, and rsv test!! We had to wait for them to send us the negative results. I was so stressed and my husband read more about it and he says we will be fine with PCR because PCR is a type of NAAT test. I have been very stressed about it. Last week someone from MSC told me the OnPoint test would not be accepted. You have another month, hopefully it will be dropped before then. 

[Safe77]

believe123:  Thanks for the info? Where did y'all go for the test?  Your husband is correct that a PCR is a type of NAAT. And the at-home tests made available by the USPS are antigen tests, not molecular-whatever tests like the PCR. Like you, this is just one more thing I don't need the hassle of dealing with. I'm kind of the "organizer and planner" for this cruise which includes my wife, myself, and my sister and her husband who live far away and have never sailed on MSC. I suspect that the PCR test may be a requirement for entry of some of the counties being visited and NOT MSC's requirement. Then again, who knows?