Travel Clinic Provides COVID Tests and Vaccines Plus Guidance for International Travel

Planning to travel this summer? With the longest-running travel clinic in the Lehigh Valley, St. Luke’s can help by administering the vaccines and preventive measures necessary to travel safely across the globe.

Established by St. Luke’s Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Jeffrey Jahre in the early 1980s, the St. Luke’s Travel Clinic provides easy access to travel medicine for anyone in the Lehigh Valley who will be traveling abroad. The clinic, which is located at the St. Luke’s Hospital Campus in Bethlehem, helps those planning to travel address the following health issues, among many others:

• COVID-19 travel testing
• Yellow fever
• Hepatitis A and B
• Typhoid
• Malaria
• Meningitis
• Travelers diarrhea

The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests administered by St. Luke’s are $99 and are the gold standard for accurately diagnosing COVID-19.

“A PCR test is a molecular test and is the best option provide the most accurate results,” explains Jeffrey Kowalski, St. Luke’s Senior Network Director of Urgent Care & Occupational Medicine Services. “PCR tests return far fewer false results, both negative and positive, compared to antigen tests, which are less sensitive than the PCR tests.”

Results of COVID-19 travel tests are generally available within 24 hours from the time the sample is received by the St. Luke’s lab. Results are then returned to patients through MyChart.

The travel clinic also offers information about outbreaks around the world, country-specific safety tips and appropriate medications for the trip. Travel recommendations during a pandemic are subject to frequent revision. Those who use St. Luke’s Travel Clinic receive the up-to-date guidance in accordance with the latest developments.

“Between the work of the Travel Clinic and the availability of testing through the primary care physicians and Care Now centers, St. Luke’s provides easiest access and the highest level of care to our community members who want to safely travel anywhere in the world,” Kowalski says.

Call 484-526-6200 Monday to Friday from 8 am to 4:30 pm to schedule an appointment with a health care professional at the St. Luke's Travel Clinic. The clinic recommends that travelers schedule appointments 6 to 12 weeks prior to traveling.

While the St. Luke’s Travel Clinic offers COVID-19 travel tests, it is not the only location to get COVID testing within St. Luke’s University Health Network. Patients can simply call their St. Luke’s primary care physician (PCP) to schedule a COVID-19 travel test. Those without a St. Luke’s PCP may call 1-866-STLUKES (785-8537), option 7, to be directed to the nearest Care Now location for testing.