TelecomTom Posted January 17, 2022 Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 I bought an abundance of at home tests for a November 21 cruise and found that their expiration was January, 2022. I've held on to them due to the testing shortages. I came across a letter from various sources today that the expiration had been extended another 3 months. See below. This should extend me through early April. I've written to eMed to see if they are honoring this extension for their supervised testing. If anyone has any additional info, it will be appreciated. I'll let you know when I hear back from eMed. IRMO12HD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedNoodles Posted January 17, 2022 Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 Good luck with that. Their customer service blows. JohnK6404, Fox Forlenza, Baked Alaska and 1 other 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TelecomTom Posted January 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 (edited) Blow, they do! I've had the same experience in the past. I wrote them so I wouldn't actually have to talk to someone (and get the response in writing). But, the product and supervised service is pretty good! Edited January 17, 2022 by TelecomTom Correction Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedNoodles Posted January 17, 2022 Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 Yep, once you get them, it's all good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted January 17, 2022 Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 https://thepointsguy.com/news/fda-extends-expiration-abbott-at-home-covid-test/ IRMO12HD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TelecomTom Posted January 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 That's where I got the letter I attached. Thanks though! IRMO12HD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmdaisy Posted January 17, 2022 Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 We sail on May 2nd on The Anthem of The Seas. I ordered my kits through E-Med on Wednesday and they arrived Fed Ex today. The lot date on mine is 12-27-21 and the expiration date is 11-21-22. The box is stamped DO NOT OPEN UNTIL INSTUCTED TO DO SO. I super hope E-Med is not a scam. I got the six pack. I also have (3) Ellume kits. There are 3 of us traveling on a transatlantic cruise. Our departure is in South Hampton England. We will be flying back to the States for London. I sure hope all goes well with this:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB1 Posted January 17, 2022 Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 I've used the emed tests for 3 cruises and they were wonderful. 1000 times better than going somewhere to get tested. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TelecomTom Posted January 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 28 minutes ago, nmdaisy said: We sail on May 2nd on The Anthem of The Seas. I ordered my kits through E-Med on Wednesday and they arrived Fed Ex today. The lot date on mine is 12-27-21 and the expiration date is 11-21-22. The box is stamped DO NOT OPEN UNTIL INSTUCTED TO DO SO. I super hope E-Med is not a scam. I got the six pack. I also have (3) Ellume kits. There are 3 of us traveling on a transatlantic cruise. Our departure is in South Hampton England. We will be flying back to the States for London. I sure hope all goes well with this:) BB1 is right. eMed tests are the way to go and the people were very helpful in walking you through the test. DO NOT OPEN the test as it says, otherwise they won't pass you as it voids the test! One thing that concerns me is where you depart and you return. I don't know if the UK will accept these to get on board or how far in advance you need to do them. It's complicated even more with your flight times/durations. Check the Royal site and check the CDC and UK requirements. You may also check past posts on RoyalCaribbeanBlog and google for other articles. Clearly, I'm not up to date on these things but a lot of warning bells are going off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TelecomTom Posted January 18, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 Okay, I heard back from eMed. Much to our surprise they replied in a timely manner! Response is below: ******************************* Thank you for contacting eMed. I understand you may have some concerns about the expiration date on your BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card HOME TEST kits. The BinaxNow COVID-19 test kits were originally made in a bulk in late 2020 thru early 2021 and was approved for testing by the FDA under the EUA (Emergency Use Authorization). The test kits have an original expiration date of September 2021, October 2021, and November 2021. Effective immediately, these expiration dates have since been extended for an additional 6 months by the FDA making the new expiration dates **March 2022, April 2022, and May 2022. **The new expiration date will be determined by the date you have on each test kit. Please take a look at second line of the white label to find the original expiration date. Once you locate the original expiration date, you can add an additional 6 months to that date. For example, if if your current expiration date is September 6, 2021, your new expiration date is now March 6, 2022. Please note, if your purchase was made on or after December 1, 2021, you should have received test kits with an expiration date in October 2022 or November 2022. These particular kits are not under the extension at this time since they were just recently manufactured. When you are ready to test, please visit www.emed.com and click on "start testing". Once your test kit expiration date falls within the afore mentioned dates, you will be able to test with no issues. For more information regarding the extension date extension, you may visit www.fda.gov or click on the actual link to the FDA extension letter: https://www.fda.gov/media/155326/download Thank you for choosing eMed. IRMO12HD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Traveling Mike Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 Thank you, Tom, for finding that information out. I was setting on 6 test kits that I thought would expire Feb 19 but now I can use them for my next 3 cruises. It is nice to hear they extended them for 6 months. Saving me money to spend on the ship. IRMO12HD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Done Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 I am wondering how long Royal Caribbean or other cruise lines will continue to require negative tests as one of the requirements to board their ships? There no way to predict if the future holds a new COVID-19 variant and another surge. Will the current test kits be able to detect any new variant? Again, no sure way to know. We have booked B2B cruises in August 2022 and a Perfect Day/Caribbean cruise in October 2022. I will wait to purchase the proctored test kits closer to those dates if it appears testing will still be a boarding requirement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TelecomTom Posted January 18, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 The country is clearly moving from a pandemic to an endemic. I think we saw this when the CDC reduced the Conditional Sail Order to voluntary. And, with the lack of test kits, the cruise lines could push back and say if there are no test kits the CDC needs to recognize the testing recommendation needs to be reduced to symptomatic cases only. We're going to have to treat Covid just like the flu ... urge vaccination and stay at home when you're sick. Baked Alaska, whitsmom and WAAAYTOOO 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 4 hours ago, Toby said: I am wondering how long Royal Caribbean or other cruise lines will continue to require negative tests as one of the requirements to board their ships? There no way to predict if the future holds a new COVID-19 variant and another surge. Will the current test kits be able to detect any new variant? Again, no sure way to know. We have booked B2B cruises in August 2022 and a Perfect Day/Caribbean cruise in October 2022. I will wait to purchase the proctored test kits closer to those dates if it appears testing will still be a boarding requirement. I would be very surprised if any testing requirement goes away before 2023. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCARD Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 For upcoming cruise on Feb 6, I ordered eMed 6 pack on Sunday, 1/16 and it arrived today (1/18). Expiration is 11/21/22, so they'll work for our May and October cruises, if needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruisin and Boozin Posted January 19, 2022 Report Share Posted January 19, 2022 Just tried ordering from Optum store and 2 and 3 packs out of stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okgladgal Posted January 19, 2022 Report Share Posted January 19, 2022 On 1/17/2022 at 2:13 PM, SpeedNoodles said: Yep, once you get them, it's all good. Did you ever receive your lost tests? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedNoodles Posted January 19, 2022 Report Share Posted January 19, 2022 1 hour ago, Okgladgal said: Did you ever receive your lost tests? No. The Fox, WAAAYTOOO, whitsmom and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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