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What if you get "pinged" or contacted by NHS Test and Trace when on holiday?

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AY1975

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We all know that you must self-isolate for 10 days if you get "pinged" by the Test and Trace app or contacted by NHS Test and Trace as having been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid.

But what are you supposed to do if you get "pinged" or contacted by NHS Test and Trace when you are on holiday? I can't find any guidance on the Government web pages on this.

Should you:

(a) Self-isolate in your holiday accommodation for 10 days (in which case what if you were due to leave after less than 10 days, and on or shortly after your booked departure date your accommodation was due to be used by someone else?)

(b) Return home early and then self-isolate for 10 days

(c) Carry on with your holiday as planned until your booked departure date, self-isolating in your holiday accommodation, then self-isolate for 10 days (or for 10 days minus the number of days you have already spent self-isolating in your holiday accommodation) when you get home?

And if you have to do either (a) or (b), there'd be the question of whether your holiday insurance (if you have any) would cover you for any extra expenses incurred.
 
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Watershed

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I'm presuming you must be referring to domestic holidays, as clearly you would be unlikely to be able to travel internationally in those circumstances.

If practicable you should do (a). (b) doesn't make a great deal of sense but equally isn't much riskier if you are just driving, for example.

In some circumstances (c) may be necessary. There are exemptions to the requirement to self-isolate allowing you to move from one place to another if it's no longer reasonably practicable to stay in the same place. That would seem to be a prima facie example to me.

Incidentally it's not the case that you "must" isolate if alerted by the app. It's purely advisory.
 

Nym

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Not having the NHS Test and Trace app helps alleviate the issue partially.
You could always ask someone at the government, and then get five different answers depending on which day of the week it is?
 

Merseysider

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d) Ignore it - the app is only advisory & the only legal obligation arises when contacted directly by the Track and Trace goblins folk.

And if on holiday I’d be unlikely to pick up the phone to an unknown number, anyway!
 

AlterEgo

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We all know that you must self-isolate for 10 days if you get "pinged" by the Test and Trace app or contacted by NHS Test and Trace as having been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid.
No we don’t! There is no “must” about it whatsoever. It is not the law.
 

Freightmaster

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We all know that you must self-isolate for 10 days if you get "pinged" by the Test and Trace app...
As per the other replies, this part simply isn't true.


And as for being contacted by track and trace, why would anyone answer a call from an
unknown/unrecognised number in the first place, especially if they were on holiday?? :s



MARK
 

danm14

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I highly doubt any foreign country has a law requiring people to follow instructions to isolate from one of the UK contact tracing services. Even if they did, without an agreement to share data, it would be entirely unenforceable as they wouldn't know who was meant to be isolating.

So unless you were on holiday in the UK*, it's highly likely you could legally (and almost certain you could practically) ignore even a normally legally-binding instruction to isolate by telephone/text/email.

*And possibly even within your own constituent country - depending on whether the wording of the law in the constituent country you're in includes or excludes the other constituent countries' contact tracing services.

Whether you should or not is, of course, another matter.
 

Merseysider

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I’d be morally comfortable doing a few lateral flow tests and carrying on with my holiday - which is what I think many people would do if they’re already double jabbed, whether before or after August 16th when the law changes.

And as for being contacted by track and trace, why would anyone answer a call from an
unknown/unrecognised number in the first place, especially if they were on holiday?? :s
Exactly.

It could be *shudders* work...
 

island

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If you are notified by the NHS app its instruction to self-isolate has exactly the same legal force anywhere you are in the world, namely none.

If you are called by Test & Trace whilst abroad, you are not legally obliged to do anything; the regulations making their instructions to self-isolate legally mandatory have in the opening section “These regulations apply in England and in the English territorial sea”.
 

danm14

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If you are notified by the NHS app its instruction to self-isolate has exactly the same legal force anywhere you are in the world, namely none.

If you are called by Test & Trace whilst abroad, you are not legally obliged to do anything; the regulations making their instructions to self-isolate legally mandatory have in the opening section “These regulations apply in England and in the English territorial sea”.
Of course, in the highly unlikely event that the country you are in has a law (and I highly doubt any country does) that requires you to follow instructions to isolate from a foreign country's app and/or contact tracing service, it would be illegal not to.

Completely and utterly unenforceable, but illegal.
 
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