Government consider quarantining people who arrive in UK from abroad.

[DonPeffers]

Today  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-53298429  "Coronavirus: No quarantine checks carried out on passengers arriving in Scotland".

 

Despite UK quarantine starting 08 June 2020 the article states

"Officials have carried out no quarantine checks on visitors arriving in Scotland from overseas, Scotland's health secretary has admitted.

Jeane Freeman said they were unable to check whether passengers were sticking to the rules because they did not have access to passenger details.

Staff in Scotland did not have security clearance to access the UK government's system containing details of arrivals."

 

Apparently Scotland is expected to keep strict quarantine rules in place for all countries until July 15.

 

A bit of a mess.

[DonPeffers]

It was only on 20 jul 2020 that Scotland lifted the 14 day quarantine for arrivals from Spain but last night at midnight it was reimposed by the 4 Home nations because of covid cases spike in 2 regions.

 

Tricky for those who went to Spain thinking an 'air bridge' meant they could holiday without problem.

 

There had been talk of having a red, amber, green traffic light system to advise on a country's covid status and likelihood of the imposition of quarantine for returning travellers but currently the system is either OK or Not OK...green or red.

 

If the amber existed within guidance, holidaymakers might be more wary of booking riskier destinations.

 

Now need to see how the holiday companies and holidaymakers react.

[corsechris]

Whilst I have sympathy for key workers wanting a holiday and a break, I can’t bring myself to feel too sympathetic toward anyone daft enough to think there won’t be “lightning lockdowns’ or ‘quick quarantines’. Seriously, what do they expect? County A declares a spike in infections, Country B has no choice but to put Country A back on their quarantine list. You can bet your pension that had the quarantine not been put back into effect, the press and everyone else would be p******** and moaning about how irresponsible it was.
 

Whatever they do is wrong with someone.

 

IMO, If you want to go on holiday, you MUST be prepared to find yourself in quarantine at either end of your trip, either going out or coming home. Regardless of the situation in place when you book, you simply cannot expect it to remain stable at the moment so have to plan accordingly.

[Nick Algar - Competition Secretary]

Unfortunately everyone is in a no-win situation. The Government is Dammed almost no matter what it does, it will get told it did it too late, too early or not enough. Some bl**** expert will come and tell them they were wrong.

 

But I've also got sympathy for the people who have holidays booked up as so often they cannot cancel and get their money back, it looks OK to go, they are sick of it all and just want to get away for a while, so off they go only to find when there they have to go into quarantine when back. I'm in this situation with a trip to Italy in September, booked last year, so no money back options, as your still fine to travel there, but what if you get there and it all goes into meltdown. Ah well, Decisions, decisions, it can wait till closer to the time.

[corsechris]

@Nick - Joint North East AO It’s certainly a tough choice and situation if you booked last year, but at least in that position you stand a better chance of having some protection than booking now.
 

I think we’re all sick of it all, but it is what it is.

 

And, yes, nobody is winning here. Well, maybe the mask manufacturers are doing OK.

[Nick Algar - Competition Secretary]

2 hours ago, corsechris said:

@Nick - Joint North East AO It’s certainly a tough choice and situation if you booked last year, but at least in that position you stand a better chance of having some protection than booking now.
 

I think we’re all sick of it all, but it is what it is.

 

And, yes, nobody is winning here. Well, maybe the mask manufacturers are doing OK.

Trouble is you can end up with "disinclination to travel" rather than an actual "Can't Travel" and the Hotels are saying we are open, tough. Mind don't know about you, but I had already before this been booking to pay when I arrive, well guess what only ever going to do that now. I'd rather miss the holiday. Lots of changes going to happen in this whole industry. Who is going to pay a Big Up Front deposit they can get lost as far as I am concerned.

 

Interestingly some of the craft gin producers in Scotland swapped over to Hand Sanitiser and have been making a "FORTUNE" can't spend it quick enough.

[corsechris]

I consider myself lucky that my holiday was cancelled by the travel agent and I got my money back (eventually). I wouldn't like to have been in the position of having to chose whether to risk travel or not, with the knowledge that insurance won’t cover a disinclination to travel.

 

Truth is though, it’s a very first-world problem.

 

And again, everyone is losing out here, operators, agents, customers.

 

Historically I was always one for booking way in advance but now, I think it’ll be last minute and take what I can get. If I ever have another foreign holiday that is.

[jeff oakley]

What I found annoying about this was the Shadow Health Secretary who was straight on the media saying how awful this was for people who had saved for a holiday for it to be ended this way. 

 

This is the same guy who was screaming at the government for not locking down much sooner at the beginning of the pandemic. As Nick says they are damned if they do damned if they don't. 

 

Also if a person flies into France at the moment and then travels back to the UK there is no joined up way to know they were in Spain at all, if the report on this was true.

 

It is the same with the wearing of face masks. There are so many conflicting views on the effectiveness of face covering. Spain has apparently been draconian in the enforcement of face covering and won praise for it, yet they now have this spike, so was it effective at all?

 

I see the sense for some but all this has done is to stop people going out to spend money, what little joy there is in shopping has been sucked out for many people at a time when we need some normality to return. Conversely some felt this was a way to get people to feel safer which would allow them to start to return to normality.

 

We are a long way of the end of this situation and even longer before the world start to trade freely again 

[Nick Algar - Competition Secretary]

15 minutes ago, jeff oakley said:

What I found annoying about this was the Shadow Health Secretary who was straight on the media saying how awful this was for people who had saved for a holiday for it to be ended this way. 

 

This is the same guy who was screaming at the government for not locking down much sooner at the beginning of the pandemic. As Nick says they are damned if they do damned if they don't. 

 

Also if a person flies into France at the moment and then travels back to the UK there is no joined up way to know they were in Spain at all, if the report on this was true.

 

It is the same with the wearing of face masks. There are so many conflicting views on the effectiveness of face covering. Spain has apparently been draconian in the enforcement of face covering and won praise for it, yet they now have this spike, so was it effective at all?

 

I see the sense for some but all this has done is to stop people going out to spend money, what little joy there is in shopping has been sucked out for many people at a time when we need some normality to return. Conversely some felt this was a way to get people to feel safer which would allow them to start to return to normality.

 

We are a long way of the end of this situation and even longer before the world start to trade freely again 

 

If we had a decent media they would point out how two faced the opposition is, but that's far too much to ask, as they are even worse.

[Blatman]

1 hour ago, jeff oakley said:

It is the same with the wearing of face masks. There are so many conflicting views on the effectiveness of face covering. Spain has apparently been draconian in the enforcement of face covering and won praise for it, yet they now have this spike, so was it effective at all?

 

Draconian enforcement given the crisis is probably a good idea as it should send a message. But by definition enforcement of the law is only ever going to catch a very few offenders. So there is never going to be a statistical correlation between the law, people abiding or not, enforcement and whether a spike occurs. Surely the situation in Spain shows that despite the threat of draconian enforcement (no-one ever died because of a fine) or catching a potentially serious, maybe even fatal infection, enough people are happy to risk both. How many of these people would drive after having a drink and then not wear a seat belt? It seems that anti face maskers are suggesting that the wearing of face masks is a step too far in government over-reach. This is foolish in the extreme. 

 

With regards to conflicting views on wearing face masks, where are these? The WHO and as far as I can tell the vast majority of health departments agree that wearing a face mask is better than not. Personally my view is that even if the benefit is small, that's better than none.

I will agree that the message on face masks has changed but that's going to happen with a novel disease. We're learning as we go.

[jeff oakley]

This one below is the sort of thing. Masks are only effective if they are the right type of mask and worn properly. So many are knocking up masks out of old tee shorts which do nothing to stop anyone who has the virus from spreading it.

 

The consensus is still it is transmitted by touch on hard surfaces and for people being 6 foot apart the wearing of masks is not really effective but for close contact in say a tube or train there may be some merit.

 

Even the article below says the advice has changed and the WHO which did not advise wearing masks now do. It is a moving picture of that there is no doubt and I do suspect that a direction has been chosen so any advice to the contrary is stifled. 

 

https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/navigating-the-new-normal-in-infection-prevention

 

I was out and about in Portsmouth at the weekend, mask wearing in shops was being enforced but elsewhere it was largely ignored even where there were crowds. 

 

What is clear is now we have got people who have decided it is their job to lecture people on wearing them even when some shops are saying they will request people wear them but not enforce this. 

[DonPeffers]

Let me run by the forum what sounds like madness.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/spain-holidays-coronavirus-quarantine-latest-what-mean-guide-a9638176.html  by 

Simon Calder Travel Correspondent 23 hours ago.

 

"Any hacks to limit the time spent in self-isolation?

The only way to reduce the extent of quarantine is to leave the country again. But any days remaining of your “sentence” will still need to be served when you return from this second trip.

So if you return from Spain on 1 August, and leave for France on 4 August for a week, you will still be expected to remain at home thereafter until 16 August."

 

"Can I dodge quarantine by returning from Spain via France, Gibraltar or another third country?

No. Every traveller to the UK must complete a passenger locator form, in which they are expected to spell out the countries they have visited in the past two weeks."  

 

Regarding the first paragraph surely if you are home and in 14 day quarantine you are not meant to leave home at all; least of all for another holiday. 

 

 

[Captain Colonial]

13 hours ago, Nick - Joint North East AO said:

 

If we had a decent media they would point out how two faced the opposition is, but that's far too much to ask, as they are even worse.

That’s the job description of all politics and all the media.  The sole purpose of these two bodies is to present us with a series of new hobgoblins on a regular basis, most of them imaginary, and make the public so clamorous to be led to safety at any cost that we forget the mess they made after getting it wrong the last time.  They know we have a short attention span and they use it.

[Alan France]

We've booked a one day booze cruise on Eurotunnel in mid August. Understand the risk of France going into lockdown but accept that.

 

We haven't rearranged our cancelled May trip to Spain but at least got all our money back, although BA were difficult to get hold of.

 

I think people who holiday in Spain this early should at least understand and take responsibility for the risk.

[Blatman]

18 minutes ago, Captain Colonial said:

They know we have a short attention span and they use it.

 

You speak for yourse....

 

Oooh look, a squirrel...