I recently got back from Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. My travel companion said his friends were asking him to buy COVID-19 rapid antigen tests abroad because they were cheaper and more abundant there Unfortunately, they asked when we were already on our last stop in Zurich, Switzerland, so we didn’t check the other countries. Switzerland is known to be expensive (honestly, I loved Switzerland and didn’t feel that it was extraordinarily expensive compared to major urban cities in the US like SF or NY), but we went out to check the local pharmacies anyways. We were shocked to find that it actually was cheaper and more abundantly available than in the US. Here are some datapoints on what we found:
BioNTech Flowflex: 22 CHF ($24.16) for 5-pack
Boson: 24.90 CHF ($27.34) for 5-pack
Roche: 36 CHF ($39.53) for 5-pack
All these prices are already including tax (if it’s charged) and it was abundant at every pharmacy we walked into. Each pharmacy only had one brand it carried.
Here in the US, buying COVID-19 kits online or in-store can sometimes be like buying BTS concert tickets. Some people are lucky in certain regions where it is abundant, but it’s still expensive, with each test coming in around $9-11 plus tax, but in Switzerland it was usually more around $5 per test, up to $8. Friends have said that other European countries were around $1-2 per test.
As of January 15, private insurance companies in the US are required to cover up to 8 tests per person per month, so maybe you don’t need this information. Many of you also get free test kits from work or school. But if you think you might need more, and you have friends traveling in Europe right now or you’re headed there yourself, stock up on some COVID-19 rapid antigen tests!