Quarantine for people arriving from abroad

[NoSoapAndGory]

The news indicates that Boris will announce a 2 week quarantine for all non-UK flight arrivals from the end of May.

I completely agree with this and am stunned that it hasn't been done sooner.

Reading the piece in the Guardian it seems that there are still thousands of people stranded abroad. That must but incredibly frightening but surely i am not being unreasonable to think that this measure is not only necessary but also woefully, unforgivably late?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/09/two-week-coronavirus-quarantine-to-be-announced-for-uk-arrivals?CMP=ShareAndroidApppNewsFeed

Eurotunnel is still running as normal to vehicle traffic however you stay in your car for the journey. No checks either side of the channel.
Friends came back from France in the last fortnight - they've been quarantining at home for 14 days - their personal decision.
They filled up their cars with food & petrol in France & hoped they could get home from Folkestone to Wiltshire on one tank (which they did)!

Why are flights from France exempt?! This makes no sense!!

As I and other understand it as the proposals stand flights from France will not be exempt.

What makes absolutely no sense is quarantining people who fly in to the UK from France but not quarantining those who arrive by sea or the Tunnel.

It’s a bit ridiculous to have quarantine when the U.K. is one of the worst/most affected countries. I live in Hong Kong; in March, 69% of all new cases where coming from Britain. The U.K. is a net exporter of covid infections.

Hong Kong has not had a single new local infection in nearly 3 weeks. What’s the point of quarantining people from a part of the world that is now virtually virus free?

In case anyone is interested, here’s the official position as published today:

“ International travel

As the level of infection in the UK reduces, and the Government prepares for social contact to increase, it will be important to manage the risk of transmissions being reintroduced from abroad.

Therefore, in order to keep overall levels of infection down and in line with many other countries, the Government will introduce a series of measures and restrictions at the UK border. This will contribute to keeping the overall number of transmissions in the UK as low as possible. First, alongside increased information about the UK’s social distancing regime at the border, the Government will require all international arrivals to supply their contact and accommodation information. They will also be strongly advised to download and use the NHS contact tracing app.

Second, the Government will require all international arrivals not on a short list of exemptions to self-isolate in their accommodation for fourteen days on arrival into the UK. Where international travellers are unable to demonstrate where they would self-isolate, they will be required to do so in accommodation arranged by the Government. The Government is working closely with the devolved administrations to coordinate implementation across the UK.

Small exemptions to these measures will be in place to provide for continued security of supply into the UK and so as not to impede work supporting national security or critical infrastructure and to meet the UK’s international obligations. All journeys within the Common Travel Area will also be exempt from these measures.

These international travel measures will not come into force on 13 May but will be introduced as soon as possible. Further details, and guidance, will be set out shortly, and the measures and list of exemptions will be kept under regular review.”

the Government will require all international arrivals not on a short list of exemptions to self-isolate in their accommodation for fourteen days on arrival into the UK.

Sounds like the sort of thing Singapore has had in place for almost all arrivals for quite some time now..

www.gov.sg/article/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-stay-home-notice

I wonder how well the Uk plan to police it?

I think it was explained why they didn't do it before. Basically anybody arriving was subject to the same rules as everyone already here which was stay at hom. And really what else is there to do? All tourist attractions closed no hotels to stay in no pubs to go to everybody being told to stay in or work from home. Basically if you are walking off a plane you are walking into a quarantine by default. No point in telling everybody coming in to do something that by default is going to happen anyway because of the way everybody else is living.

But now if some things are open there will be a choice other than lockdown. Which is to go out and do those things. So now is the point to tell people coming in to stay at home for two weeks, because they are not forced into it by default.

France is exempt as Macron did a deal with Boris, apparently.

A friend is cabin crew for BA and says some flights (40 alone each day in and out of Heathrow) are full! No checks on arrival and no social distancing on board.

Nothing against the French or the Irish but why are they exempt an more frighteningly, why dont Imind? Has there been some clever mind control?

My daughter flew back from USA mid April

Temperature taken before boarding flight
16 passengers total
A third of the cases where she was compared to Birmingham and same population

She quarantine when she arrived in one house

Where will people go when the get here? Doubtful they go that far anyway

Deviantslagheap

We're still abroad. While I agree with the quarantine I'm not sure where we're going to go as we both have housemates.

Genuine question - how come you're still abroad? FCO has been advising people to return home for weeks.

Can you return home via France or Ireland?

China quarantined people on arrival too. On entering China you were given a hazmat suit to wear and then transported to a quarantine facility so the chance of infecting anyone from airport arrival to arriving in quarantine was virtually zero.
New arrivals were also tested for the virus on day one of quarantine and again on day 13 before being released. During quarantine your temp is checked twice per day.

It’s half arsed headline grabbing nonsense

It needed to be done in March!

And it won’t be effective because there’s no way to even know if people are sticking to it, never mind a way to enforce it.

It worked in places like Australia because they brought it in early and strictly. The Boris version will be as effective as “staying alert”

A friend is cabin crew for BA and says some flights (40 alone each day in and out of Heathrow) are full! No checks on arrival and no social distancing on board.

Not doubting he/she has seen some, but how many is "some"?

The Long Haul flights, which seem to make up the bulk of BA's daily movements into/out of LHR ATM, are almost entirely dedicated to Freight only and have been for weeks.

@Celeriacacaca A friend is cabin crew for BA and says some flights (40 alone each day in and out of Heathrow) are full!

Your cabin crew friend is incorrect. Today 30 BA flights were scheduled to arrive into Heathrow. 14 of them had passengers on, 8 short haul, 6 long haul. The remainder were freight flights. The flights with passengers on had between roughly 5-85 passengers on (to compare this against aircraft size, short haul aircraft have around 140 seats, and long haul aircraft have between 234 and 469 seats,) but mostly around 30-40 passengers. This is an increase from 15-20 flights a day last week. I do not know why these people are flying, I have not had the opportunity to meet a passenger since the middle of March to ask them, I have flown one freight flight. I would normally fly over 1200 passengers a month around.

Apologies for the thick question, but does this mean that if foreign travel goes ahead this summer, British holidaymakers returning home will have a 2 week quarantine period?
Thanks in advance.

And do they mean quarantining at home? If so, how is this enforced?
Sorry

Yes, if it goes ahead you would need to quarantine at home. Can be enforced through spot checks, track your phone etc. In China the police came and checked every day and taped your door to ensure it had not been opened.

It’s another half arsed attempt to look like doing something. In Australia, anyone arriving has had to land in Melbourne and go into quarantine for 2 weeks. The Australian government then pays for their flight to their home state.

@ShanghaiDiva - I don’t see that happening in uk.

Probably not.
My best friend did 14 days self isolation in Australia I think that was monitored through spot checks.
My dh did 14 days In a quarantine facility in China, not fun but strict measures mean restaurants, tourist attractions, schools, etc all open, albeit with some social distancing measures in place.

Not sure how long will this last. Can’t see how they’re going to track this unless the nhs app is used to track where you’re (otherwise why encourage to install it if you’re going to stay at home without going out ?) and it was sworn itd not be used to track people last week wasn’t it ?

Hong Kong is quarantining arrivals. Those coming from places deemed high risk (India, Nepal, South Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh) are transferred to quarantine centres. Others can do quarantine at home by wearing an electronic bracelet and downloading a tracking app on their phone.

France had included the UK in the list of countries having exemptions from quarantine requirements. UK did not propose to reciprocate this. Macron contacted Johnson and said if UK did not include France as one of the countries with quarantine exemptions, then France would also exclude the UK.

It would certainly pose some difficulties for the UK if it was not exempt from French quarantine restrictions and if suppose you could not reasonably expect an exemption which you don't in turn reciprocate.

www.thelocal.fr/20200510/no-quarantine-in-uk-for-travellers-from-france-macron-and-johnson-agree
.

'Anyone arriving from within the EU, including the UK, and the Schengen Zone would not be subject to quarantine.'

'All travel into France is currently heavily restricted, with only essential travel allowed and everyone needing an international travel certificate to cross the border.'

Left the UK late March and returned home to Oz-signing a declaration at Melbourne airport agreeing to self-quarantine for 2 weeks. Was truly relieved at the quarantine regulations implemented&how quickly Oz govt reacted-they've have gone a long way to keeping our total death rate at 97&under 5000 infections..In UK at least now if your movements are less restricted and everyone is practising distancing/hygiene the amount of new cases being bought in can be curtailed.

We cannot feed ourselves if we close the borders. We're what, 50 or 60% self-sufficient in food? New Zealand and Australia are more than self-sufficient.

We saw a food shortage panic already (with no actual shortage of food!) The govt won't want to go back there.