Covid restrictions abroad: updates & observations

[kristiang85]

Your mileage may vary, indicating that the quality of the translation might not be the most readable to those who are not used to looking at such things regularly.

Ahh, thanks I must be getting behind the times of Internet speak. Though I quite like the translation of "animal health powers".

By the way, I'm seeing commentary saying this was passed in the end last night?

Edit: ah so this is for tourists not the local French population? But even so, looking at the responses here, the French are not happy https://twitter.com/LCP/status/1392256963023720449?s=19
A Le Pen government seems to be getting ever more possible...

 

[Bikeman78]

My own thoughts are that we need the approach of Florida, imposing fines for even asking about vaccination status.

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2021/04/...n whether or not one has declined treatment.

I agree. What is one meant to do if the test before coming home is positive? Kip on a bench for 10 days?

 

[LAX54]

So despite vaccination and better treatments for covid, it's looking even more onerous to go abroad this year than it was last year when we had no vaccines. Something doesn't add up!

So from May 17 we can all travel abroad again, albeit most are Amber, but they have said it will be reviewed in 3 weeks, so how many who have booked a holiday to a green Country for say 5 weeks time.....will find that they are now booked to go to an Amber or Red Country, because the goal posts have been moved again ? !

 

[kristiang85]

So from May 17 we can all travel abroad again, albeit most are Amber, but they have said it will be reviewed in 3 weeks, so how many who have booked a holiday to a green Country for say 5 weeks time.....will find that they are now booked to go to an Amber or Red Country, because the goal posts have been moved again ? !

I think if you look at the country's data, you can make informed decisions.

I've booked a Portugal trip for August, and I'm fairly confident it will remain green as:
- It's curves are similar to ours, and I can't see any reason why the low levels won't change.
- Last summer the levels remained very low for the duration.
- Its got one of the better vaccination programmes in the EU.

But everything I've booked is fully flexible, just in case.

 

[LAX54]

I think if you look at the country's data, you can make informed decisions.

I've booked a Portugal trip for August, and I'm fairly confident it will remain green as:
- It's curves are similar to ours, and I can't see any reason why the low levels won't change.
- Last summer the levels remained very low for the duration.
- Its got one of the better vaccination programmes in the EU.

But everything I've booked is fully flexible, just in case.

Hope it remains green for you and that the tests needed are not too expensive and readily available, I too have trips booked, (from 2020) but they are, like you flexible, but hoping do not need to flex them anymore !

 

[kristiang85]

Hope it remains green for you and that the tests needed are not too expensive and readily available, I too have trips booked, (from 2020) but they are, like you flexible, but hoping do not need to flex them anymore !

I really hope testing rules ease over the next few months - or the rumours of free or subsidised testing come true.

But it's the longest I've gone without going away since 2004, and it's essentially our honeymoon (as we are getting married end of July, though we are postponing our 'proper' honeymoon in S America to 2022 now), so I'll pay up if needed.

Hope yours go ahead as planned too!

 

[island]

PS what does YMMV mean?

“Your mileage may vary”, originally part of the “small print” said rapidly at the end of a radio or TV ad for automobiles in the United States, is a disclaimer that ”miles per gallon” figures advertised may not be achieved for everyone.

In modern internet parlance it is used more generally to acknowledge a situation where opinions, interpretations, or experiences as to a particular matter are likely to differ.

 

[packermac]

I really hope testing rules ease over the next few months - or the rumours of free or subsidised testing come true.

But it's the longest I've gone without going away since 2004, and it's essentially our honeymoon (as we are getting married end of July, though we are postponing our 'proper' honeymoon in S America to 2022 now), so I'll pay up if needed.

Hope yours go ahead as planned too!

Who is it rumoured will be providing free or subsidised testing?
I have just read BA claim to be trialling on the crew "a reliable" saliva test that gives a result in 25 seconds. Hoping for passenger roll out if it works.
However it also seems to need a smartphone or a tablet to download the data to so will not met everyone's needs.
And like anything from an airline (in this case my former employer) may well include an element of "spin"

 

[Ediswan]

Who is it rumoured will be providing free or subsidised testing?

Tui.

 

[kristiang85]

Who is it rumoured will be providing free or subsidised testing?

I read a week or so back that the government would give you a free test to take in your luggage to use prior to departure for coming home to make sure you're negative before you fly, then it would be £50 for the tests on arrival at home. I saw this in the telegraph travel live feed I think.

 

[johnnychips]

I read a week or so back that the government would give you a free test to take in your luggage to use prior to departure for coming home to make sure you're negative before you fly, then it would be £50 for the tests on arrival at home. I saw this in the telegraph travel live feed I think.

I voluntarily test myself for work twice a week with a lateral flow test. I don’t, but there would be nothing to stop me falsifying these results unless the test is clever enough to detect ‘no saliva present’ and voiding it.
Indeed, unless anyone requires me to physically produce the cartridge, I could just make the results up anyway. (For those who haven’t seen one, it is like a pregnancy test. One bar, clear; two bars, positive; wrong bar only, void)

 

[kristiang85]

. (For those who haven’t seen one, it is like a pregnancy test. One bar, clear; two bars, positive; wrong bar only, void)

My fiancee, being a teacher, gets up a lot earlier than I do and had to start doing these when they were first "a thing". I wasn't really aware of this, so imagine my shock when I found a plastic device with a line on it the next morning sitting on the dining room table I quickly worked out it was an LFT, but the first few seconds before I realised that were a bit panicky...

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

This is Portugal compared to other European sun spots case rates



Gives you an idea that its unlikely at the next review in two weeks any of these countries will be added.

Data from https://ourworldindata.org/covid-cases

 

[Darandio]

I bet you're thankful you aren't still in Wales @Butts !

Covid: People in Wales asked not to travel abroad

International travel to be allowed in Wales from Monday but first minister says it's "best avoided".

www.bbc.co.uk

People should avoid foreign holidays this year even though they may be allowed to, Wales' first minister says.
UK government advice is that from Monday people in England can holiday abroad in a small number of countries.
But Welsh ministers say people in Wales should only go abroad from 17 May for "essential purposes" and Mark Drakeford urged people to stay in Wales.
Mr Drakeford is expected to announce that Wales will move to Covid alert level two from Monday.
He is due to confirm the move shortly, at the next Welsh government Covid restrictions review press conference.

Mr Drakeford said officials "decided to hold back" on relaxing some lockdown restrictions on Monday because of concerns about an Indian variant of coronavirus.
Experts are concerned the variant has mutations that may make it more transmissible, but it is not yet known if it causes more severe disease or if it might make current vaccines less effective.
A total of 26 cases of two variants first identified in India have been found in Wales as of last Thursday - including 11 of a type identified by officials as a "variant of concern".
The first minister told Sky News ministers had thought about "moving ahead with the reopening of smaller events" as well as "liberalising the rules in the way in which people can meet together, not just in their extended household but beyond that", but both are now on hold.

 

[LAX54]

Seems according to the BBC Portugal will allow Brits in from Monday......

Tourists from the UK will be allowed to visit Portugal from Monday, the country's minister of state for foreign affairs has said.

Anyone arriving in the country will need to have had a PCR test 72 hours before departure, according to VisitPortugal, the website developed by the country's National Tourism Authority.

Work is also under way to ensure there is enough testing capacity in Portugal, it adds.

The announcement comes despite Portugal extending its "state of public calamity" on the mainland - the second highest level of alert - for a further 15 days from Monday, until 30 May.

 

[packermac]

Seems according to the BBC Portugal will allow Brits in from Monday......

Tourists from the UK will be allowed to visit Portugal from Monday, the country's minister of state for foreign affairs has said.

Anyone arriving in the country will need to have had a PCR test 72 hours before departure, according to VisitPortugal, the website developed by the country's National Tourism Authority.

Work is also under way to ensure there is enough testing capacity in Portugal, it adds.

The announcement comes despite Portugal extending its "state of public calamity" on the mainland - the second highest level of alert - for a further 15 days from Monday, until 30 May.

Which I see from the BBC Lisbon reporter includes mandatory face masks outdoors (does that include the beach?) and capacity limited restaurants.

 

[Butts]

I bet you're thankful you aren't still in Wales @Butts !

Covid: People in Wales asked not to travel abroad

International travel to be allowed in Wales from Monday but first minister says it's "best avoided".

www.bbc.co.uk

I do miss it occasionally (apart from all the Welsh people )

Seriously, as Darth admitted in the interview he didn't ban it because as he admitted stopping everyone hightailing to English Airports was unenforceable. At least he was honest about it.

Now Northern Ireland is opening up it's remaining Tourism Facilities on May 24th I am hoping this will put pressure on Dublin to be not far behind and open up freely the rest of Ireland ( at least to the CTA) shortly after.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

Which I see from the BBC Lisbon reporter includes mandatory face masks outdoors (does that include the beach?) and capacity limited restaurants.

@Giugiaro You might be a qualified person to answer this question seeing you live in Portugal!

 

[kristiang85]

I do miss it occasionally (apart from all the Welsh people )

Seriously, as Darth admitted in the interview he didn't ban it because as he admitted stopping everyone hightailing to English Airports was unenforceable. At least he was honest about it.

Now Northern Ireland is opening up it's remaining Tourism Facilities on May 24th I am hoping this will put pressure on Dublin to be not far behind and open up freely the rest of Ireland ( at least to the CTA) shortly after.

It's not like Wales was a big international hub anyway?

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Boris on press conference tonight was very cautious about many more countries being added to the green list and saying

we will be maintaining a tough border regime for some time to come

staycation this summer unless you want to goto Portugal that look like clear winners in Europe

 

[scarby]

So people in Wales should avoid going abroad even if they are fully vaccinated?

And people who are fully vaccinated still need to take a test to visit Portugal?

Last summer people could go abroad through travel corridors with no testing and there was no vaccine.

I thought vaccines were supposed to be the road out of restrictions? If they aren’t, what is?

 

[johnnychips]

But...everybody in Spain is wearing masks, everywhere, so we must be safe to go there

 

[Freightmaster]

I thought vaccines were supposed to be the road out of restrictions? If they aren’t, what is?

Zero Covid and New Zealand style hermetically sealed borders, according to some 'experts' on Twitter




MARK

 

[Jonny]

Zero Covid and New Zealand style hermetically sealed borders, according to some 'experts' on Twitter




MARK

</shakes head>. @Freightmaster I get that you are hacked off with them, so am I.

That isn't going to work in the long run, even Jacinda Ardern (the New Zealand Prime Minister) (*) admits that the exit solution is mass vaccination. For many people, the odds of an adverse outcome are so low that, while it is right to make the vaccine available, it is positively unethical (and grossly immoral) to to use even the slightest coercion. Even the Twitter ^experts^ admit (or would have to admit) that the only effective eradication strategy involves mass vaccines.

(*) As a proper tourist, I would boycott New Zealand because of her even before the ^virus^ once she came to power. I only went to NZ in 2018 because my sister was living there at the time and, coming back to the thread, that is the last foreign trip that I had and I would not be over-bothered if I never did so again.

 

[Butts]

Looks like the new crackpot scheme they've got proposed for entry to Northern Ireland from the CTA will be abandoned pretty rapidly at least if the Tourism Body has it's way.

Clear as mud

 

[island]

At some point business reality has to win out over excessive precautions.

We are getting there.

 

[kristiang85]

</shakes head>. @Freightmaster I get that you are hacked off with them, so am I.

That isn't going to work in the long run, even Jacinda Ardern (the New Zealand Prime Minister) (*) admits that the exit solution is mass vaccination. For many people, the odds of an adverse outcome are so low that, while it is right to make the vaccine available, it is positively unethical (and grossly immoral) to to use even the slightest coercion. Even the Twitter ^experts^ admit (or would have to admit) that the only effective eradication strategy involves mass vaccines.

(*) As a proper tourist, I would boycott New Zealand because of her even before the ^virus^ once she came to power. I only went to NZ in 2018 because my sister was living there at the time and, coming back to the thread, that is the last foreign trip that I had and I would not be over-bothered if I never did so again.

New Zealand's government has also said it never wants to return to pre COVID levels of travel, and is adding extra taxes to flights there. There's definitely another agenda in their government.

 

[Yew]

New Zealand's government has also said it never wants to return to pre COVID levels of travel, and is adding extra taxes to flights there. There's definitely another agenda in their government.

Ah, so the socialist government of Jacinda Arden is resorting to the vile excesses of capitalism to select who can visit their country.

 

[Ianno87]

New Zealand's government has also said it never wants to return to pre COVID levels of travel, and is adding extra taxes to flights there. There's definitely another agenda in their government.

I think if the world returns to pre-Covid levels of flying then we've done something wrong. Though ideally this should not be done by making flying less affordable.

 

[Yew]

I think if the world returns to pre-Covid levels of flying then we've done something wrong. Though ideally this should not be done by making flying less affordable.

Cant have people enjoying themselves and seeing the world, can we.