Nordics-based travel assistance organization SOS International has launched a coronavirus testing service that promises to deliver results within 15 minutes. The service is available at an SOS International clinic in Copenhagen, with another in Aalborg in the Jutland region of Denmark scheduled to start next week. Tests must be booked online and cost 375 Danish kroner (US$59). Corporate clients also can arrange to have employees tested at their own offices.

Customers are presented with a Covid-19 “passport” declaring they have tested negative. According to SOS International, false negatives are not possible with the test, which was produced by French company BioSynex, although up to 4 percent of positive tests may be incorrect.

The emergence of rapid testing could prove particularly useful for travelers to countries that require a negative test certificate to permit entry or avoid quarantine on arrival. The maximum allowable period before arrival when a test could have been performed often is 48 hours (such as some states in Germany) or 72 hours (including Russia and Japan). This has made entering those countries for short business trips very difficult because until now commercially available coronavirus tests typically have had a turnaround time of 72 hours.

SOS International is owned by 13 of the largest insurance companies in the Nordic region.

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