France transit/quarantine requirements are unfair

[Prochainesortie]

I know 5 families currently in relatively Covid safe European families (Eg Germany, Poland etc) visiting their own families who will now have to quarantine due to transiting France for a few hours and using the Eurotunnel. They won’t stay the night in France just refuel once due to driving distances, they won’t exit the car in the eurotunnel. 1 is my cleaner and she is panicking about no income on return. She doesn’t have online shopping and her children won’t be allowed out of her small flat to exercise for 14 days! The only reason she drove was to be safer and avoid airports! I think the U.K. government is unreasonable given France is such a transit country. More notice should have been given and they need to relax the transit requirements urgently. I agree that spending the night in France might increase the risk but 1-2 refuel/stop should be allowed as long as masks/sanitiser etc are used. My cleaner is driving in a big car with another family, I told her to look into driving through Germany for longer/carrying some fuel if possible. Hopefully she will find a way to avoid the quarantine legally by not having to stop.

[Friendsoftheearth]

OP, there are no tips for avoiding quarantine.

[Needmoresleep]

Its tough not seeing family. DH and DD are visiting his parents for the first time since lockdown. They were shielding in Yorkshire. If additional restrictions had been introduced either where we live or where they live, they would not have gone.

We have not seen our student DS since Christmas. He is in the US, so it is very uncertain when we will be able to see him next.

This is how things are. Everyone is affected. the cleaner knew the risks she was taking. With any luck her employers will be understanding and pay her anyway. Better that she is one of the people who bring the virus back with them. (And any parent knows how many virus' are brought back into school after the summer holidays even without a global pandemic, from kids being out and about and mixing with lots of different people in different places. )

[UntamedWisteria]

This is what the government website says about being in transit:

Private vehicles
You don’t need to self-isolate if you travel through a non-exempt country and you don’t stop in the country.

If you do make a stop, you don’t need to self-isolate if:

no new people get into the vehicle
no-one in the vehicle gets out, mixes with other people, and gets in again
You do need to self-isolate if you make a stop and:

new people get into the vehicle, or
someone gets out of the vehicle, mixes with other people and gets in again

As long as the OP's cleaner pays at pump if she refuels, she's fine. Alternatively she could take the route through Germany as far as possible, then fill up the car before she has to cross the border into France.

[notimagain]

This quarantine is a joke. People arriving by plane can get home by public transport

Yep..

Frankly if people genuinely think travellers touching fuel pump handles in France is going to significantly raise the risk of covid spreading in the UK they have not looked at the bigger picture/the details of isolation, or are kidding themselves that somehow "Border" is trying to throw a ring of steel around the UK.

I do agree that people travelling should have been prepared for a UK quarantine but a sense of proportion needs to be maintained..

[Abraid2]

@WaffleCash

I think the specific issue is transiting through a country and having to quarantine based on that. We recently drove through the Netherlands to catch a ferry from Rotterdam, we did not set foot on Dutch soil at all but presumably this week would be subject to quarantine.

We were fully prepared for rules to change and would have quarantined, but it would have been ridiculous and based on no logic at all. And the risk with making illogical rules is people stop following all rules, even the logical ones.

If you didn’t get out of the car you wouldn’t need to quarantine.

If new passengers got on during this transit stop, or you or other passengers got off, mixed with other people, then got on again, in the 14 days before you arrived in the UK, you must self-isolate.

[Sirzy]

Sorry if you go overseas at the moment you have to plan in for the need to potentially quarantine. If you decide to go then don’t complain if you have to quarantine.

My MIL lives in France. We have known since the start of all of this that we won’t be able to travel to see her for the foreseeable future.

[Abraid2]

@TitsOutForHarambe

I'm in Australia and most people who travel outside of cities have fuel cans. If you fill them up before you leave then you can refuel whenever and wherever you want to. Not sure if that helps, it would depend on her route and how many mpg her car gets.

I was going to say fuel can too.

[SmudgeButt]

I hope they all have diapers of some sort or are willing to pee at the side of the road. I wouldn't be able to drive that long with a pitstop.

I quite understand the need to see one's family and I sympathise but it's only by being strict with quarantine that this can be done fairly. Would you believe anyone who said they drove for 8, 10, 18 hours without stopping, without getting out of their vehicle?

[SmudgeButt]

I hope they all have diapers of some sort or are willing to pee at the side of the road. I wouldn't be able to drive that long with a pitstop.

I quite understand the need to see one's family and I sympathise but it's only by being strict with quarantine that this can be done fairly. Would you believe anyone who said they drove for 8, 10, 18 hours without stopping, without getting out of their vehicle?

[Friendsoftheearth]

I feel for people that are compromised by the infection rate soaring in some parts of Europe (and other places) now, but the point of the exercise is to slow or pref stop the spread, finding ways around quarantine is completely missing the point. Unless we ALL follow the advice we are going to end up with a massive and devastating second wave that is going to kill tens of thousands again!!!

Our economy will be in ruins if we have to do another lockdown.

So please just follow the god damn rules.

[drspouse]

I don't think fuel cans are legal in the UK.

I would suggest a route involving filling up in Germany. Google Maps tells me the German border to Calais is 350km which is doable. You can get out to walk your dog in a field so the kids could potentially go behind a tree also.

[whiteroseredrose]

We've just been to Iceland and had a COVID-19 test immediately on arrival. Results within 24 hours. Don't know why we can't do that here

[OliviaPopeRules]

@whiteroseredrose

We've just been to Iceland and had a COVID-19 test immediately on arrival. Results within 24 hours. Don't know why we can't do that here

Because it can take up to 14 days for it to show on the tests.

[Friendsoftheearth]

It is pointless Iceland testing people on arrival unless they are prepared to test them every day for fourteen days.

[Daphnise]

If you decide, for whatever reason, to go abroad during a global pandemic, you have to put up with any health regulations a country needs to introduce.

And no one wants to hear moaning about it.

[ItsAlwaysSunnyOnMN]

How can it take 14 days to show on a test

the test is either positive, negative or inconclusive (most likely incorrectly down or handle)

[hoistbymyownzombiepetard]

@ItsAlwaysSunnyOnMN

How can it take 14 days to show on a test

the test is either positive, negative or inconclusive (most likely incorrectly down or handle)

All that the test result shows is that you did not have it at the time you were tested.

It does not mean that you will not have a positive result during the following 14 days.

[ItsAlwaysSunnyOnMN]

Yes because as soon as you walk away from a test centre unless in wearing full PPE and not coming into contact with anyone you can catch it

[Dominicgoings]

‘How can it take 14 days to show on a test

the test is either positive, negative or inconclusive (most likely incorrectly down or handle)’

Is this a serious post?
If so, it’s no wonder the UK is fucked.

[ItsAlwaysSunnyOnMN]

Yes it is a serious post

[Prochainesortie]

@untamedwisteria - thank you for that suggestion of pay with card at a petrol
Pump. I am going to double check with the home office quarantine helpline on Monday too if that is ok. You can drive through France and not leave your car at all and touch all the buttons at the payage and that would be ok so I don’t see how touching a petrol pump and paying with card there and not mixing with people is any different. The key exemption has to be not mixing with people. My cleaner did go home for a funeral, it was essential travel. She chose eurotunnel as you don’t have to mix with people, like at an airport. She was worried about a fuel can due to additional risk of fire but I think going a longer route through Germany is a good suggestion too.

[ItsAlwaysSunnyOnMN]

I get tested regularly

And results are negative

Am I have negative results when I could be positive

[CouldBeOuting]

Would you believe anyone who said they drove for 8, 10, 18 hours without stopping, without getting out of their vehicle?

I would! DH and I drove through France for 10 hours no pee breaks needed. Took food in cool box. Stopped once for fuel, paid at pump, used gloves, wore masks, no contact with anyone. If we had needed to pee we would have stopped at one of the woodland aires and gone behind a tree and then used hand sanitiser.

Of course we did all charge towards the loo when we arrived at our gite.......

I am confident that I am less likely to catch anything here than if I were at home. No post or junk mail coming into my house. No neighbours coughing just the other side of my garden fence. Mask rules strictly adhered to here but certainly not in my local shop in England.....

[OliviaPopeRules]

@ItsAlwaysSunnyOnMN

I get tested regularly

And results are negative

Am I have negative results when I could be positive

If you are infected with COVID today it can take up to 14 days for you to show symptoms or for it to show on test hence 14 day quarantine. Did you think the 14 days was picked at random???

[Mintychoc1]

Couldn’t she buy a few cans of petrol and keep them in the car on the journey?