Covid restrictions abroad: updates & observations

[Eyersey468]

Was able to get back before the PCR test to return requirement comes in. Wasn't too bothered about the test when get back because we both work for Network Rail so exempt from Isolation and only have to do LFT. But for Germany its just not worth (potentially getting a positive PCR test back) and having to isolate abroad. (for which we are not exempt).

The travel industry is ruined, and it looks like our railway will be too when he says to work from home anytime soon. Plan B. Feel duped for having the Vaccination that was supposed to end this rubbish.


But nobody is listening. Oh, and I didn't do my LFT on return. Not heard anything.

You're not the only one, I feel duped as well. We were told the vaccines were the way out of this but it doesn't feel like it now. This winter is a write off now as far as I am concerned. I've a trip to Auschwitz booked for February 2023 and am seriously questioning whether things will be back to 2019 normal by then.

 

[WestRiding]

You're not the only one, I feel duped as well. We were told the vaccines were the way out of this but it doesn't feel like it now. This winter is a write off now as far as I am concerned. I've a trip to Auschwitz booked for February 2023 and am seriously questioning whether things will be back to 2019 normal by then.

Not wanting to hijack, but we went to Aushwitz last week. An amzaing experience. If you feel peckish and don't want a plastic sandwich, give the Perogi Bar a try oposite Oswiecim Station, over the road, right hand side. Polish Dumplings heaven.

 

[Eyersey468]

Not wanting to hijack, but we went to Aushwitz last week. An amzaing experience. If you feel peckish and don't want a plastic sandwich, give the Perogi Bar a try oposite Oswiecim Station, over the road, right hand side. Polish Dumplings heaven.

Thanks I'll bear it in mind. Its a trip I have wanted to do for years. Sorry for the thread drift mods.

 

[Butts]

Spoke to soon about being "off the leash" from NHS Scotland picking up on my return from abroad to Scotland on the PLF.

Two E-Mails arrived yesterday evening

 

[Mintona]

I think I posted a while back that I expected international travel to be ‘normal’ again in 2025. I may have to re-assess that to 2026 or 2027 at this rate.

 

[duncanp]

Spoke to soon about being "off the leash" from NHS Scotland picking up on my return from abroad to Scotland on the PLF.

Two E-Mails arrived yesterday evening

What did the e-mails say?

 

[Butts]

What did the e-mails say?

Just the usual nonsense about having been alerted that I had entered Scotland from abroad.....and I needed to isolate until I got the result of my PCR Test et al.

Talking of Tests Chronomics have come up trumps in producing a result in good time.

I took the PCR test yesterday at 9am packaged it up and sent it off to them in a Royal Mail Priority Post Box.

According to their site they received the package at 1537 this Afternoon at the Lab and my result was ready by 1620 - Negative

They must have some red hot kit at that Laboratory as I thought it took a lot longer than 40 minutes .....or ??????????

 

[duncanp]

Just the usual nonsense about having been alerted that I had entered Scotland from abroad.....and I needed to isolate until I got the result of my PCR Test et al.

Talking of Tests Chronomics have come up trumps in producing a result in good time.

I took the PCR test yesterday at 9am packaged it up and sent it off to them in a Royal Mail Priority Post Box.

According to their site they received the package at 1537 this Afternoon at the Lab and my result was ready by 1620 - Negative

They must have some red hot kit at that Laboratory as I thought it took a lot longer than 40 minutes .....or ??????????

I wonder if I will ever be contacted by NHS Track & Trace about my self isolation, which ended at 7pm on Saturday.

I won't be holding my breath.

 

[KeithMcC]

The airlines are totally stuffed by this nonsense. Just back from a curtailed business trip to Holland - 8 people on the plane from City to Amsterdam this morning. About 50 on the return flight this evening but 3 or 4 other flights had been cancelled.
Cancelled my meetings tomorrow so I could use my outward Lateral flow test to come back within 48 hours, so no danger of getting stranded.
Expensive and hopefully quick PCR test booked for tomorrow morning so I can get back to normal.
But that is going to be the last trip for a while!

 

[Butts]

I wonder if I will ever be contacted by NHS Track & Trace about my self isolation, which ended at 7pm on Saturday.

I won't be holding my breath.

I've got a feeling that one of the "missing parts of the jigsaw" is as to whether the Test Provider informs (in my case) NHS Scotland of the result ?

After previous tests I have heard no more from them after the initial e-mails on return to the UK.

Thankfully these have all been negative, but I wonder if things are handled differently if you get a positive result.

 

[kristiang85]

An international law firm is launching a judicial review into the UK's hotel quarantine policy, which has once again been made mandatory for all arrivals from "high-risk" countries.

Tom Goodhead, managing partner of PGMBM, argues that it should be unlawful for fully vaccinated travellers who have tested negative for the virus to be "detained in this way" when entering Britain from one of the 11 African countries now on the red list. PGMBM will seek permission at the High Court on Thursday.

"The idea that they need to pay for the privilege of their own false imprisonment is outrageous," Goodhead told the BBC. "It is for this reason that we are taking the UK Government to court."

It comes after a British couple stranded in South Africa this week when there was no room available at a UK quarantine hotel launched a legal challenge calling on the Government to fund the costs, describing the situation a "fundamental breach of human rights".

Yesterday saw the World Health Organisation, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, and even the Archbishop of Canterbury, calling for the travel red list to be scrapped.

(Telegraph live feed)

It will be interesting to see the outcome of this.

 

[Cdd89]

The bit has always struck me as highly dodgy about hotel quarantine, is paying for the security services that come with it. This is an implied assumption that you might otherwise break the law, and need to pay for your own enforcement thereof.

Even if this degree of isolation is necessary (it isn’t), there is no reason why someone living alone (or with access to an empty house, eg by cohabitants moving out temporarily) and with access to delivery services should need to pay anything toward hotel quarantine.

 

[nw1]

I hope everything is more back to normal by next May or we will be moving/cancelling our trip to Greece.

I'd hope so by May, that is five months in the future.

If there are still harsh travel restrictions by then, the tourism and travel industry worldwide will be truly on its knees. It really is time for a measured response, where the risks of Covid are balanced against the risks of lockdowns and harsh travel restrictions on the economy (and thus jobs and poverty) and people's mental health.

 

[Eyersey468]

I'd hope so by May, that is five months in the future.

If there are still harsh travel restrictions by then, the tourism and travel industry worldwide will be truly on its knees. It really is time for a measured response, where the risks of Covid are balanced against the risks of lockdowns and harsh travel restrictions on the economy (and thus jobs and poverty) and people's mental health.

I agree

 

[westv]

I'd hope so by May, that is five months in the future.

If there are still harsh travel restrictions by then, the tourism and travel industry worldwide will be truly on its knees. It really is time for a measured response, where the risks of Covid are balanced against the risks of lockdowns and harsh travel restrictions on the economy (and thus jobs and poverty) and people's mental health.

I don't want any restrictions by then!

 

[Butts]

I don't want any restrictions by then!

Faint Heart !!! - I was in Greece just a few weeks ago.

Agree it is squeaky bum time, but I'm off to Turkey next week.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

Just arrived in Italy. PLF and proof of negative test & vaccination checked at Gatwick. On arrival in Naples, no Covid related documents were asked. Just a passport stamp on my British passport.

 

[adc82140]

So remind me, why is there still a red list?

 

[island]

So remind me, why is there still a red list?

Because it's a cheap (to the government) way of being seen to be tough on Covid, and it's populist to have restrictions sprung on people who "knew what they were risking when they went abroad during a pandemic".

 

[nw1]

Because it's a cheap (to the government) way of being seen to be tough on Covid, and it's populist to have restrictions sprung on people who "knew what they were risking when they went abroad during a pandemic".

LOL. I spent several months abroad last winter and as a result dodged Covid thanks to being in a quiet, low-density, rural environment; I think I would likely have caught it back here and as I was unvaccinated at the time, and as a result ended up more ill than I actually was a month or so back when I finally got it.

 

[Cdd89]

Because it's a cheap (to the government) way of being seen to be tough on Covid, and it's populist to have restrictions sprung on people who "knew what they were risking when they went abroad during a pandemic".

Also we can’t loosen restrictions while things are worsening domestically. Everyone knows that. It’s obvious common sense.

(I shouldn’t need to clarify, but the above is sarcasm!)

 

[Yew]

Even if this degree of isolation is necessary (it isn’t), there is no reason why someone living alone (or with access to an empty house, eg by cohabitants moving out temporarily) and with access to delivery services should need to pay anything toward hotel quarantine.

But how else is Boris going to be seen to be being tough on the virus?

 

[greyman42]

Also we can’t loosen restrictions while things are worsening domestically. Everyone knows that. It’s obvious common sense.

(I shouldn’t need to clarify, but the above is sarcasm!)

Are things worsening domestically?

 

[Butts]

Well I've uploaded my Vaccination Certificate and Turkish PLF so off to Istanbul on Wednesday.

At least they have not gone into panic mode and reintroduced inward testing - although it can be done randomly at the Airport.

Have my LF for the return journey and my PCR will be awaiting me at home when I get back only added about £60 onto the cost of my trip.

Hoping the LHR-IST and return IST-LHR will be virtually empty particularly in Club - I'm in 1C so no one will be reclining on me.

My sincere wish is that the excursion will be more Turkish Delight than Midnight Express.

 

[island]

Well I've uploaded my Vaccination Certificate and Turkish PLF so off to Istanbul on Wednesday.

At least they have not gone into panic mode and reintroduced inward testing - although it can be done randomly at the Airport.

Have my LF for the return journey and my PCR will be awaiting me at home when I get back only added about £60 onto the cost of my trip.

Hoping the LHR-IST and return IST-LHR will be virtually empty particularly in Club - I'm in 1C so no one will be reclining on me.

My sincere wish is that the excursion will be more Turkish Delight than Midnight Express.

You must have quite a decent number of tier points by now.

 

[Cdd89]

Actually it looks like the red list (or at least the hotel quarantine side of it - it’s not entirely clear) might be going away again soon, according to The Telegraph:

Hotel quarantine could be scrapped this week

Red list rules could be eased later this week after reports that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has convinced colleagues to ease restrictions on travellers.

www.telegraph.co.uk

Red list rules could be eased later this week after reports that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has convinced colleagues to ease restrictions on travellers.

A plan is expected to be approved in the coming days and hotel quarantine could be replaced with testing for fully vaccinated travellers, according to the Mail on Sunday.

"There will be changes to the red list and hotel quarantine system later this week, changes which enable the Government to look friendlier towards travel just one week before Christmas," Paul Charles, chief of travel consultancy The PC Agency, told Telegraph Travel.

He added: "The red list will stay in some form, as the Government relies on it as a safety net to expand at the right moment, but I’m expecting hotel quarantine to be relaxed for UK citizens entering England and possibly all the devolved nations. It will be replaced instead by self-isolation at home which is something that should have been introduced from the beginning."

 

[Butts]

You must have quite a decent number of tier points by now.

Reset last month unfortunately

However this is my third "240 Trip" in a row following Greece and Albania over the last few weeks.

On course to achieve the 1125 Points to retain my Gold Card.

For people who want to travel abroad this is a good time to do it cost wise as long as you book with someone as flexible as BA.

The three daliances have included Club Flights from EDI via LHR to wherever I am going, three or four nights in a Hotel for around a monkey each.

 

[Pete_uk]

What happens if you suddenly find you have to pay £2k to quarantine but can't afford it??

 

[joncombe]

What happens if you suddenly find you have to pay £2k to quarantine but can't afford it??

They "generously" let you pay it in monthly installments.

 

[Pete_uk]

Great, thanks!