Collect your test from the Halo desk which is situated at the Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5.

Our Halo desk opening hours are 7am-6pm. If you arrive outside of these hours, you can collect and hand your test back to the Sofitel concierge which is open 24hrs a day

IMPORTANT: Please download our iOS app or visit app.haloverify.com to create your account and register your details BEFORE YOU ARRIVE AT THE AIRPORT. This helps us keeps the queues and overall waiting time short for your visit

Yes. This will be your booking confirmation, which will have been sent to you via email when you purchased your test.

To help you find this email, it would have been sent from info@haloverify.com and the subject line will contain: “[Halo] Your order has been confirmed.”. Within this email, you should find your “booking refence number” which always starts with HALOV followed by 7 digits (for example, HALOV1234567)

IMPORTANT: Please download our iOS app or visit app.haloverify.com to create your account and register your details BEFORE YOU ARRIVE AT THE AIRPORT. This helps us keeps the queues and overall waiting time short for your visit

Please watch our How to video here. Halo staff will help you on the day if you are unsure of anything

IMPORTANT: Please download our iOS app or visit app.haloverify.com to create your account and register your details BEFORE YOU ARRIVE AT THE AIRPORT. This helps us keeps the queues and overall waiting time short for your visit

Your results are sent to you via email and within our app
Day 2 PCR results are scheduled for delivery overnight by 8am seven days a week.
Fast tracked PCR test results will be delivered within 4 hours of the sample collection time
NAAT / LAMP test results will be delivered within 90 minutes of the sample collection time

Our Halo desk is open 7am-6pm
for Fast tracked PCR and NAAT/LAMP tests the last sample collection time is 5pm

You can use our Antigen Lateral flow tests as a pre-departure “fit to fly” test IF the destination and airline allow a self declared test. Please check with your airline and the arrival rules for your destination.

No. These tests are for use in person at Terminal 5 only. If you wish to purchase an at home test, these will need to be separate transactions. Please purchase through the main site

Our Halo desk is open from 7am-6pm

For outbound fast tracked PCR or NAAT/LAMP the latest time a sample can be given is 5pm.

No, you can submit tests for more than 1 person in the same account. This is more suitable for families where a relative (like a child) does not have their own device/email address/telephone number etc. You will still need personal details (eg Name, D.O.B etc) for the other person/relative as this will be used to generate the result certificate that will be sent once your test has been processed.

It will be much quicker on the day if everyone registers ahead of arriving and submits their own tests, using their own device but as previously stated, it is possible to submit a test for another person using one device.

If you use one account to register and submit a test for more than one person, then the test results will be available on the device used and the email will be sent the email address registered in that account.

Please ask a Halo member of staff on the day if you are unsure of anything.

Halo does not provide parking but short stay parking is available throughout Heathrow Terminal 5 (Parking charges may apply)

LAMP is a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), this test is approved for travel to all 50 states within the United States of America. LAMP is a method of detecting the presence of specific pieces of viral genetic material in a saliva sample. The presence of the viral genetic material triggers an extremely rapid copying of the genetic material. In samples where this copying is initiated, a dye (red/ pink) present in the reaction changes colour (yellow): this colour change is very clear to the naked eye, rather than needing sophisticated instrumentation. But in samples where there is no viral genetic material, the coloured dye remains unchanged: red/ pink.

As it ‘copies’ genetic material, LAMP is more similar to a PCR ‘gold standard’ test than it is to a ‘rapid’ Antigen Lateral Flow Test. Like PCR, LAMP is a test that benefits from analysis in a laboratory, but as it is less complicated than PCR, it is faster. The flip side of this is that LAMP is less sensitive than PCR, but still much more sensitive than an Antigen Lateral Flow Test.

When analysed in an accredited laboratory (ours is ISO 22870), the test is very specific for SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) as well. We have implemented a LAMP test that benefits from enhanced purification of the viral genetic material, to ensure that every sample has the best chance of delivering a clear result the first time it is analysed: we believe that our LAMP test has the optimum combination of speed, sensitivity and specificity to make it a valuable addition to the suite of Covid-19 diagnostic tests we provide.

Antigen Lateral Flow Tests (LFTs) directly detect a protein that is contained inside the virus particle. The more virus there is, the easier it is for an LFT to detect this protein. But that means that when you are newly infected and the virus is just starting to multiply inside your body, an LFT test may fail to detect the low levels of virus present. This might happen (particularly) before you have any symptoms.

But LFTs are useful for identifying those people who are already infectious, probably symptomatic, and so have a large amount of virus in their system. RT-qPCR, which is simplified to PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), is more sensitive, because it makes copies of the genetic material of the virus, and even very small amounts of the genetic material will trigger an ‘exponential’ duplication: it is a ‘chain reaction’, a bit like the detonation of an atom bomb!

Consequently, PCR is so sensitive it can identify newly infected people more certainly than LFT, before they become symptomatic and before they become infectious to others. PCR is also more ‘specific’ than LFT. LFT can fail to distinguish between the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) virus and other related coronaviruses. Some common colds are caused by non-SARS-CoV-2 coronaviruses, and there is potential for a lower specificity to confuse LFT and generate a false positive.

This is much less likely with PCR, which remains the diagnostic gold standard. Air travel is obviously a high risk for becoming infected. We believe that relying on the result of an LFT immediately after travelling on an aircraft is questionable: LFT is unlikely to identify anyone who has become newly infected. Even RT-qPCR would be challenged by someone very newly infected, but it is likely to identify the newly infected before LFT, due to its higher sensitivity.