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Covid restrictions abroad: updates & observations

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Watershed

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England updates: From 4 October the amber and green lists will be abolished, leaving just the red list and the “everything else”.

Fully vaccinated passengers will no longer need to take a pre-departure test before their trips back to England, and from later in the month can use a (paid for) lateral flow test for their day 2 test rather than a PCR.

However, unvaccinated passengers will still need pre-departure tests, will have to quarantine and will need to take day 2 and 8 PCR tests when arriving from outside the common travel area.

Turkey, the Maldives, and Pakistan will move from red to amber from Wednesday.

source: live Rolling news channels
So this means that for unvaccinated passengers, the rules are actually getting stricter and the green list has (for their purposes) been eliminated.
 
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Cdd89

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In my opinion we should follow the example of many other countries, and abolish the “Red list” nonsense entirely. Perhaps the way that happens will be by removing countries from the list without adding new ones, but I’d rather the list went in the first place.
 

adc82140

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To be honest the most time consuming part of going abroad was filling in the wretched passenger locator form. I think they deliberately write it in pseudo double gibberish. It also is a swine to fill in on a phone. I wasted an hour wresting with that.
 

Cdd89

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To be honest the most time consuming part of going abroad was filling in the wretched passenger locator form. I think they deliberately write it in pseudo double gibberish. It also is a swine to fill in on a phone. I wasted an hour wresting with that.
Did you notice that they ask you for the date you arrived about 4 times?

Ok, technically they’re 4 different questions, but I still wish they just had a button called “today”.
 

Butts

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Not that brilliant. He pretty much confirmed that testing will continue until the new year.

Still a vast improvement on the current set up.

No testing before return (saves hassle abroad) and LF on return - This should also have been abolished for vaccinated returnees to bring us into line with Europe.

Looks like I'm good to go.....

Ireland - next week

Jersey - October

Turkey - October

Greece- November

Albania - December

Italy - December

All with BA EDI via LHR/LCY 3/4 Days- Club Europe for around a monkey or less each - absolute steal :E
 

LAX54

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So this means that for unvaccinated passengers, the rules are actually getting stricter and the green list has (for their purposes) been eliminated.
Is this just a bit of spin on the current way we work (at least from 4th October) all I can see that i has done is added a few to the red, and vice versa, done away with Green and it's just in reality Red and Amber, PCR tests to go at a later date, but will still have to take a Lateral Flow test on day 2 ?

And of course depending on where you wish to go, still have to pay for PCR tests on the way out of the UK

Travel Agents on TV seem to be over the moon, saying its so good, but Simon Calder did seem a bit more down to earth, saying its marginally better !

Not a PCR though......
PCR / Lateral...still a swab up your nose and down your throat ! bit cheaper tho
 

adc82140

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No requirement far a swab down your throat for lateral flow, and it doesn't go as far up the nose. In any case, having now done two PCR tests and two lateral flows for various reasons I would never allow anyone else to swab me. I'll do it myself or not at all.
 

LAX54

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Choose providers that allow you to take the test unsupervised if you find the test unpleasant.
That then, really opens the system up to 'abuse' for want of a better word, just tickle the inside of mouth / nose, I am told it then comes back negative, not that I have ever had a test !

No requirement far a swab down your throat for lateral flow, and it doesn't go as far up the nose. In any case, having now done two PCR tests and two lateral flows for various reasons I would never allow anyone else to swab me. I'll do it myself or not at all.
When I was talking to a person who was giving out the free NHS test kits, that you had to push it up your nose until it met with resistance about 2,5 to 3 cm
(not that I took a box home anyway ! :) )
 

Cdd89

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Spokespeople for PCR testing companies are trying to pile on the pressure not to replace day 2 testing with cheap lateral flow tests — which is pretty brazen!

Dropping PCR tests will put Britain 'at risk of new Covid variants', warns immunologist​

In response to the Government's plans to drop PCR testing in favour of lateral flow tests, the immunologist and founding scientist at Cignpost ExpressTest, warned that the move puts Britain "at risk of new Covid variants".
Denis Kinane said that he "welcomes" plans to simplify the travel restrictions, particularly the Government's system of traffic light destinations.
However, he warned that the decision to drop "gold-standard PCR tests" in favour of lateral flow tests "will be a calculated risk that could put Britain at risk of new Covid variants entering the country."
He added: "Currently, Cignpost's own data shows 4 in every 1,000 people are testing positive after they arrive in the UK, and every one of them had already supposedly recorded a negative lateral flow test while abroad.
"That is the equivalent of 400 people entering the UK with Covid every single day.
"Without PCR testing, we are in danger of reducing our ability to sequence positive tests for variants of concern, making us blind to new threats or changes in the virus."
 

WestRiding

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So regarding Lateral Flow Tests from end of October, does one need to prove this has been purchased/obtained before travelling back to the UK, and if so how? I'm looking forward to going abroad in November but very anxious I will mess it up and get into trouble.
 

Cdd89

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I have seen a few (unsourced) claims that the day2 lateral flow test will need to be supervised, either in person or via video call (that’s not currently a requirement). If this is true (it may not be!), then the new scheme may not be that much of a saving, unfortunately.

The cheapest unsupervised PCR Day 2 test, via Expert Medicals, is £28 inclusive of outbound shipping and return postage. (They’re de-listed from the government website, but you can still order from them and the PLF accepts their codes!). Meanwhile the cheapest video-supervised rapid test I can see is £30 (and is a lot more hassle!).
 

LAX54

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I have seen a few (unsourced) claims that the day2 lateral flow test will need to be supervised, either in person or via video call (that’s not currently a requirement). If this is true (it may not be!), then the new scheme may not be that much of a saving, unfortunately.

The cheapest unsupervised PCR Day 2 test, via Expert Medicals, is £28 inclusive of outbound shipping and return postage. (They’re de-listed from the government website, but you can still order from them and the PLF accepts their codes!). Meanwhile the cheapest video-supervised rapid test I can see is £30 (and is a lot more hassle!).
Smoke and Mirrors from the Government ?
 

Watershed

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Apparently the only reason the PCRs aren't being scrapped sooner is that the testing companies wouldn't be able to cope with the required number of LFTs.

That's about the flimsiest excuse imaginable for extending their licence to print money. It screams lobbying, it screams "half way house to appease the Department of Health". That is no way to make government policy.

Even with this 'easing', our international travel restrictions remain significantly more onerous than most of Europe. Let us not forget that roughly a third of all countries in the world are on the red list, meaning you must pay more than £2000 for a stay at Her Majesty's Pleasure. After testing negative twice.

There are a lot of shocking decisions that have been made over the last 18 months, but the perpetuation of the fallacy that foreign travel is inherently more dangerous than domestic travel, and therefore must be restricted, has to be towards the top of the list.

There just seems to be no end game for when we will accept the fact the virus is endemic and scrap these restrictions. As Australia shows, even the most stringent measures only succeed in kicking the can down the road.

There are a lot of mistakes that, in hindsight, I am willing to forgive because we didn't know much better at the time. But this is not one of them.
 

Cdd89

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The “Red List” is truly the most unforgivable policy; many European countries have no such red list, or don’t apply quarantine to vaccinated individuals. The number that mandate hotel imprisonment quarantine under any circumstances is about 1 or 2 at last check, and even they may have stopped.

We can presumably agree that there is a gradient of risk; a “most risky” rest-of-world country, and a “least risky” red list country. The former has light touch measures and is open for holidays and nonessential travel; the latter requires £2,000, 10 nights’ isolation, with no guaranteed access to the outdoors, and the risk of further hotel isolation if you test positive on day 8 (for a potential of 18 nights in total), even if you travelled to see a dying relative.

But don’t worry, because only an idiot would take part in managed quarantine, because there’s an alternative by cooling off in a “third country”, which you’re definitely the first person in the world to think of and is in no way encouraged by government policy, and it’s now new and improved as it requires no testing whatsoever pre-departure. So someone could bring in a supposed variant of concern that justifies such draconian measures due to the lack of testing after the 10-day cool-off. And worst of all, the opposition is nowhere to be seen in condemning the Red List, in part because they spent much of the year banging the “puny borders” drum themselves and pushing the fiction that we could have “kept out delta” for political reasons.

If it were truly about risk and not xenophobia, we’d make anyone who had visited a festival quarantine in a hotel for 10 days (because that’s probably more risky than the average of any country); and obviously anyone who tests positive as they’re a confirmed risk, and especially anyone who returns from any foreign country who tests positive, and absolutely especially anyone who returns from a foreign country and whose positive test is sequenced as a VoC. But acceptance of endemicity only seems to apply domestically, and people don’t support dehumanising £2,000 quarantines when they think they could apply to themselves.
 

island

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If that proves to be true glad my entry point to the UK is London and then onto Edinburgh.
No doubt Nicola will pass a law requiring tests based on residence in Scotland rather than entry point.
 

WestRiding

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No doubt Nicola will pass a law requiring tests based on residence in Scotland rather than entry point.
Of course, anything to try going against Boris. If I was Scottish I'd just fly from England and travel by land back to Scotland. And that's how stupid Scotlands decision to be different is.
 

Butts

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Of course, anything to try going against Boris. If I was Scottish I'd just fly from England and travel by land back to Scotland. And that's how stupid Scotlands decision to be different is.

No need, just get a connecting flight, you clear immigration in England and are subject to their testing regime.

Scotland's differing policy only apples to direct flights from abroad that land there.
 

Yew

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Scotland's differing policy only apples to direct flights from abroad that land there.
Presumably Nicola is so caught up in her independence dreams, that she doesn't realise it hasn't happened yet?
 

Jamesrob637

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So fully jabbed still can't go anywhere at no extra cost? I.e only have to present your proof of vaccination. I have a lft kit at home. I can use that before departure and after my return.
 
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