I am a midwife, and although I work in a different country, the systems are similar. here is my advice if you think it could be useful.
I have facilitated plenty of births with no VEs. Most times, a woman´s behaviour, specific landmarks on the body and where you listen to the baby with the doppler machine can indicate progress, and give you a very good idea of how far labour is at any given time.
However, this works much better in multiparas (women who have birthed at least before), not only because, as a general rule, they birth faster and progress is more regular, but also because they have gone through the process before, know their bodies and what level of pain is normal. Multiparas very rarely call you in labour unless they really are in established labour. A primipara will call an average of 3-4 times, convinced she is in advanced labour, and she will be on average 1-2 cm. As you imagine, very few midwives will happily stay by a woman for 3 days just because she does not want a VE and "thinks" she is in active labour. At some point you will have to: a) accept a VE, or b) let the midwife go home and risk having the baby on your own.
In some cases a VE may mean the difference between safety (as in detecting a problem) and a series of adverse outcomes:
If the baby is posterior, often women will behave as if they were just about to push the baby out when they are just 2-3 cm, because the back of the baby's head puts pressure on the colon and gives them the urge to push. Without a VE, they may rupture their cervix trying to push the baby past it. In a less dramatic scenario, the baby will get increasingly stressed.
Regular VEs are the only way to asess failure to progress, or obstructed labour, where the woman will behave as if she is in advanced labour but the cervix does not dilate, dilates extremely slowly (incressing baby's levels of stress), and/or the baby does not come down the birth canal. There can be several reasons why this happen, which range from mild to severe emergencies with different degrees of interventions needed to guarantee the baby's and mum's safety.
A VE will show a malpresentation/malposition. Sometimes babys are breech and this has not been detected antenatally, or they can turn breech right before or during labour. An abdominal palpation does not always pick up a breech baby, as the baby's head and the bum feel very similarly, especially in bigger mums. the baby may also be in rarer positions, like transverse, oblique; or may have a shoulder, brow, or face presentation. These last 3 will not be detected by palpation or auscultation and will result in an extremely dangerous pushing stage. Some of them will cause en obstructed labour in second stage, which is a massive emergency.
A VE will show you if there is a cord presentation/prolapse (where the cord is caught between the baby's head and the vagina, an emergency in which the baby's life is at enormous risk and you have minutes to act). There is no other way to detect this (except when you have a complete prolapse and you can literally see the cord protruding from the vagina... you really don't want this to happen, believe me).
A VE will show the presence of vasa previa: in some women the umbilical cord's vessels separate before the cord joins the placenta (it's called "velamentous insertion), and one of these vessels is caught under the baby's head. if her membranes rupture, the vessel may break and the baby will bleed to death before they have a chance to be born. Again, massive emergency with minutes to save the baby.
This just out of my head. Are you a first time mum? If so, you absolutely have the right to decline VEs, but need to be aware of how useful they can be whe things don't go to plan, which is something that happens much more frequently in primiparas.
On top of that, the current unprecedented pandemic situation means that every extra person in a ward multiplies the risk of COVID19 transmission, and the longet that person stays, the higher the risks. Most of the World have already given up basic rights (freedom to get out of the house and go wherever you want, for example) in order to protect the whole of the population. Midwives are some of the health professionals at a much higher risk of contracting/passing around the virus, as they have to spend many hours in close contact with labouring women, who do not behave as the stereotypical hospital patient, who just lies on the bed meekly. Labouring women pace, kneel, go on their knees, huff and puff, sweat, vomit, cry, pee, poo and break their waters on or in close proximity to their midwife on a regular basis. A partner in the room is an extra person to potentially get exposed to, trample over, get in the way, faint, vomit, use the toilet, eat, drink, get impatient when things take time, and/or behave irresponsibly. So I am fully behind the rule on "only partners during active labour", which we are already implementing in my country of residence.
Please, don't be that person who makes the health professionals' life infinitely more difficult by making a scene at the hospital because you don't think the rules apply to you. You don't want VE's? then sure, try a home birth. However, you need to know that, if anything goes wrong at home, or if hours and hours go by with no evident progress, the home birth midwives will be strongly recommending a VE too. I am a home birth midwife too, and our threshold to tolerate abnormality when birthing at home is much lower than at the hospital. you don't want a massive emergency to happen at home, so you become much less tolerant of small things that "don't look quite right".
Whatever happens, best of luck for you and your baby!