Flights to the US restarted on Monday (8 November) but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has put in place strict COVID testing requirements for travellers, including children.

They say that all passengers from the age of two must have a supervised COVID test, which can be a monitored lateral flow test or a PCR test.

Fully vaccinated flyers can take the test no more than three days before they travel, but unvaccinated travellers, including children who haven't had both jabs, must take their test no more than one day before they fly.

Completing a COVID test with children can be stressful, so Louise Humphreys, head swabber at Cignpost ExpressTest's facility at Heathrow Terminal 4, has given her top tips for taking a lateral flow tests with kids.

They include:

• Don't turn testing into a big event, which could make them worry about what's to come.
• When it comes to taking the test, get all the elements ready before bringing your child through. Keep the atmosphere light and fun, you could make the test part of an exciting get-holiday-ready party.
• If an adult in the party is very comfortable taking the test, have them go first so the child can see that it's okay.
• Have a distraction toy to hand, and a reward for the finish.
• Come down to the child's level, so they're not looking up to you.
• Give them a swab to hold and play with so they can see it's not hard.
• Sitting young children on an adult's lap helps keep them calm.
• If you're worried that this won't work, but for an in-person test with a professional swabber, where the change of scenery can help calm a child.

How: Cignpost ExpressTest offers supervised tests at more than 30 airport and city centre locations across the UK, with prices from £35 for the monitored lateral flow test, and from £59 for the PCR test. The company will be launching digitally-monitored lateral flow tests shortly, https://www.expresstest.co.uk/.

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NOTES TO EDITORS
Cignpost ExpressTest is a part of Cignpost Diagnostics and is one of the UK's largest COVID test provider for consumers, particularly in the travel sector, with 37 testing centres across the country.

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