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Quarantine

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MikeWM

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Sadly I think the border nonsense will be irritatingly persistent. Even after all of our domestic regulations are eased, they'll still claim the risk of new variants that could evade vaccines is too great.

I agree entirely.

As I think I mentioned before though, this will affect a whole different group of people from previous measures. A number of my work colleagues, for example, have been fairly accepting of all this nonsense so far, but effectively not being able to go abroad to see family or friends is going to be very unpopular indeed with them.
 
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takno

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Well as it sounds like you have a business need to travel the cost will surely be met by the contract or your employer. I assume you are currently managing them via some internet means which could continue to be undertaken from a hotel room when you return.
My employer would certainly cover the cost, but we are hardly operating unscathed as a company, and certainly don't have unlimited funds. I personally have strong opinions on being expected to spend 10 days in an even more limited environment than my flat. Whether I could do my job from hotel quarantine is questionable - it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to find the government forcing people into rooms with non-existent internet, or services only available at an eye-watering additional fee.

The point is that doing this for all international arrivals is an absurd and completely arbitrary action, which absolutely smacks of being seen to do something.
 

joncombe

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My employer would certainly cover the cost, but we are hardly operating unscathed as a company, and certainly don't have unlimited funds. I personally have strong opinions on being expected to spend 10 days in an even more limited environment than my flat. Whether I could do my job from hotel quarantine is questionable - it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to find the government forcing people into rooms with non-existent internet, or services only available at an eye-watering additional fee.

The point is that doing this for all international arrivals is an absurd and completely arbitrary action, which absolutely smacks of being seen to do something.
Yes I mean the BBC have been illustrating stories about hotel quarantine with a picture of a Travelodge fairly consistently.

£175 a night for a Travelodge room, where they charge extra for Wifi. Travelodge must be loving it. But 10 days improsined in a Travelodge room. No thanks.

Also my understanding is that 10 nights is the minimum. If you test positive it could be many more - at £175 a night that's going to get really really expensive (I remember hearing of some people that got in quarantine for months somewhere because each member of their party tested positive at different times).
 
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Darandio

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I assume for your £1,750 you get some decent 3 course meals, 3 times a day. Sadly I don't think so.

Probably plenty of fire alarms going off when someone wants a ciggie .

Well the chief executive of the UK Hospitality trade body has said "hotel companies can deliver a good quality quarantine experience".

Now of course she would say that, they have been hit hard and this is some much needed extra income but come on, 'good quality quarantine experience' is right up there with the most nonsensical Covid related statements of the past 12 months.
 

MikeWM

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Yes I mean the BBC have been illustrating stories about hotel quarantine with a picture of a Travelodge fairly consistently.

£175 a night for a Travelodge room, where they charge extra for Wifi. Travelodge must be loving it. But 10 days improsined in a Travelodge room. No thanks.

Can you pay that much for a room even if you try really hard? The most I've ever seen for a Premier Inn was around £120 a night, I think. I don't think I've ever paid more than £50 a night.

Anyway, aren't you supposed to have good ventilation and open windows 'to prevent Covid'? In most Travelodges or Premier Inns you can't even open a window...
 

Chester1

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Can you pay that much for a room even if you try really hard? The most I've ever seen for a Premier Inn was around £120 a night, I think. I don't think I've ever paid more than £50 a night.

Anyway, aren't you supposed to have good ventilation and open windows 'to prevent Covid'? In most Travelodges or Premier Inns you can't even open a window...

The £1750 is inclusive of the cost of covid tests on day 1, day 5 and day 8. If negative you are released after 10 nights. If you test positive then you have to stay longer and get more tests but you do not have to pay more. Some of the £1750 is therefore sharing the risk of a positive test. It also includes cost of security and (limited) police support for security.

Edit: much of the accommodation will be better than Premier Inn. Most airport hotels are. Its a lottery whether you get put in a Premier Inn or a Jury's Inn (which in my experience are considerably better).
 

MikeWM

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The £1750 is inclusive of the cost of covid tests on day 1, day 5 and day 8. If negative you are released after 10 nights. If you test positive then you have to stay longer and get more tests but you do not have to pay more. Some of the £1750 is therefore sharing the risk of a positive test. It also includes cost of security and (limited) police support for security.

Always nice to pay for your jailers!

Though yes, I was being slightly facetious, though it still seems very steep given presumably the hotels will be block-booked in advance.

Edit: much of the accommodation will be better than Premier Inn. Most airport hotels are. Its a lottery whether you get put in a Premier Inn or a Jury's Inn (which in my experience are considerably better).

Don't think I've stayed in a Jury's, perhaps ever. But then all I'm usually looking for in a hotel is a bed and free wi-fi. My requirements would be rather different if I was to be confined to the room for 10 days :-/
 

Yew

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Not often I find myself agreeing with that obnoxious woman, but in this instance I agree with her. UK Government should not only make all quarantine but should have introduced it way earlier.
Could you provide some evidence that it'll do anything?
 

takno

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We can't say that sacrificing virgins in volcanos won't.
You can give it go, but there aren't any active volcanoes in the UK, so once you get back from the sacrificing you'll be stuck in a Travelodge with the rest of us. And at £175 quid a night I'll be down first to nick all the sausages off the breakfast buffet.
 

MikeWM

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You can give it go, but there aren't any active volcanoes in the UK, so once you get back from the sacrificing you'll be stuck in a Travelodge with the rest of us. And at £175 quid a night I'll be down first to nick all the sausages off the breakfast buffet.

A breakfast buffet? Don't be so silly, we can't have those anymore.

Though they seem to still have them in Italy:

https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity...in-row-Italy-food-Covid-face-mask-news-latest
The 47-year-old had been filming abroad in Italy for the daytime show and had stopped for some breakfast.

Jonnie explained that amid the pandemic, people have to follow social distancing rules and wear a mask.

To the presenter's dismay, he was approached by a woman who had failed to wear a face covering.

Jonnie recalled: "An Italian woman breathed over my breakfast buffet.

"I remember going up to her and saying, in Italian, to wear a mask.

"And she looked at me as if I was some frothy old woman and just carried on."

He added: "She then went back to her table."

Yes, folks, that's news in 2021. Someone breathed, and it caused 'dismay'.
 

joncombe

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You can give it go, but there aren't any active volcanoes in the UK, so once you get back from the sacrificing you'll be stuck in a Travelodge with the rest of us. And at £175 quid a night I'll be down first to nick all the sausages off the breakfast buffet.
Good grief, we're not allowed buffet breakfasts any more. You'll get what you're given!
 

takno

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Good grief, we're not allowed buffet breakfasts any more. You'll get what you're given!
If the breakfast buffet is off then the volcano trip is off. Unless SAGE can find a way to fire up a volcano in the UK then I'm afraid we're all just going to have to learn to live with this darned virus
 

island

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Good grief, we're not allowed buffet breakfasts any more. You'll get what you're given!
As of immediately prior to everything closing down, buffets were legal generally in Wales, but in the rest of the UK they were only legal on premises without an alcohol licence.
 

Peter Mugridge

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Didn't they say you had to pay after the quarantine? And it is only a couple of dozen countries, so its not necessarily going to impact the hider holiday industry.
The BBC News at 18.00 stated that travellers would have to buy the £1,750.00 Quarantine Package up front before travelling...
 

HSTEd

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What is far more likely to happen is that you fly from Red List country to somewhere like Miami and then spend ten days there on holiday before flying back to Britain.
 

ld0595

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Not often I find myself agreeing with that obnoxious woman, but in this instance I agree with her. UK Government should not only make all quarantine but should have introduced it way earlier.

While I can understand that some will want all travellers to undergo quarantine, what's the end game here? It's clear that the virus is here to stay and there will always be mutations. We can't close ourselves to the outside world forever because of a risk of someone bringing in a new mutations. The key here will be pre and post departure testing and ensuring a quick turnaround.

We live in Scotland and both myself and my partner have family abroad - my sister is in the Netherlands and her parents in the States. She hasn't seen her family for nearly 2 years now and there's no way she we pay £1,750 each to quarantine for two weeks to visit our respective families.

Fortunately (?) we could get out of it by flying into England although that would be against the spirit of the guidelines. I just would really like to know how we actually plan on living with this in the longer term because mandatory hotel quarantine is clearly not sustainable in the medium to long term.
 

Chester1

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What is far more likely to happen is that you fly from Red List country to somewhere like Miami and then spend ten days there on holiday before flying back to Britain.

Or if Ireland if it lifts quarantine for Brits and doesn't blacklist the same countries as the UK (its only blacklisted Brazil and South Africa currently). The UK government has refused to impose quarantine with the Common Travel Area even on the occasions that Ireland had a higher 14 day case rate.
 

Bantamzen

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The BBC News at 18.00 stated that travellers would have to buy the £1,750.00 Quarantine Package up front before travelling...
Hmmm, that wasn't what was originally stated. And whilst that would cause problems for returning citizens where the restricted country list changes whilst they are abroad.
 

Mintona

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Grant Shapps was on BBC Breakfast saying that international travel restrictions won’t be lifted until ‘everybody’ in the UK has been vaccinated.

I’d probably hold off booking any trips forever then, as a good number of people won’t be vaccinated.
 

Bantamzen

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Grant Shapps was on BBC Breakfast saying that international travel restrictions won’t be lifted until ‘everybody’ in the UK has been vaccinated.

I’d probably hold off booking any trips forever then, as a good number of people won’t be vaccinated.
I wouldn't be so sure, Shapp is already coming under fire from legal quarters over the threat of jail, I suspect the rest of this will come under question very quickly. These latest measures are more political gesturing than anything else, the last of the "must be seen to be doing something" policies before the government have to face up to the reality.
 

Watershed

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While I can understand that some will want all travellers to undergo quarantine, what's the end game here? It's clear that the virus is here to stay and there will always be mutations. We can't close ourselves to the outside world forever because of a risk of someone bringing in a new mutations. The key here will be pre and post departure testing and ensuring a quick turnaround.
There isn't an end game! This will go on for as long as people meekly put up with it.

I wouldn't be so sure, Shapp is already coming under fire from legal quarters over the threat of jail, I suspect the rest of this will come under question very quickly. These latest measures are more political gesturing than anything else, the last of the "must be seen to be doing something" policies before the government have to face up to the reality.
It appears the intention is simply to 'vigorously' apply the existing Fraud and Counterfeiting Act 1981, specifically the offence of forgery (section 1). It's far from clear that such an offence would be made out through a false PLF declaration, but of course it will be the stick used to beat people into compliance, the same as the mythical £6400 face covering "fines".
 

philosopher

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I wouldn't be so sure, Shapp is already coming under fire from legal quarters over the threat of jail, I suspect the rest of this will come under question very quickly. These latest measures are more political gesturing than anything else, the last of the "must be seen to be doing something" policies before the government have to face up to the reality.
If anyone gets given a ten year prison sentence for lying about where they went on holiday I would be amazed. Judges are in most cases going to deem such a sentence grossly disproportionate for the the crime.
 

kristiang85

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Grant Shapps was on BBC Breakfast saying that international travel restrictions won’t be lifted until ‘everybody’ in the UK has been vaccinated.

I’d probably hold off booking any trips forever then, as a good number of people won’t be vaccinated.

Apparently he also said not until everybody abroad has been vaccinated??

That's insane. Its going to take years.
 

joncombe

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Well yes. If you went back 12 months most of what has happened would be unimaginable. Would you believe the Government would tell you you can only leave your own home without an excuse. You cannot meet your friends or family. You cannot travel anywhere. You cannot go to the pub. You cannot go shopping. You cannot have your hair cut. Not to mentions masks, social distancing and so on.

It's madness and yet, very sadly, the population has just accepted it. It seems Laura has only just noticed.
 

35B

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What is far more likely to happen is that you fly from Red List country to somewhere like Miami and then spend ten days there on holiday before flying back to Britain.
Which is precisely why there is then an aggressive interpretation of the law over how passenger locator forms should be completed. Regardless of whether the policy is good, bad or awful, I’m not going to criticise the government for thinking through how things will work in the real world, and looking to avoid creating loopholes.
 

Ediswan

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What is far more likely to happen is that you fly from Red List country to somewhere like Miami and then spend ten days there on holiday before flying back to Britain.
The wording is "If you have been in or through any of the countries listed below in the last 10 days". So that looks like an entirely rational option - if your chosen intermediate country will allow you of course.
 
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