Why iQuarantine being treated seriously . ?

[disorganisedsecretsquirrel]

Son returned from a European holiday this afternoon. He booked it and then within hours it was announced 2 weeks Quarrantine required.. after much thought he decided to go - his leave year ends in September and if he didn't take it he would lose it. Been wfh since March - hasn't seen many friends so we decided we would help him with the Quarantine requirements and told him to go.. his two friends decided to go as well.

They returned this afternoon. We spent the last two weeks sorting out a place for him to Quarantine in...

He gets to Gatwick . Has filled out all his details for track and trace and there is no one there.. just the automatic gates that you scan your passport on.

Nowhere to leave 'track and trace details' no mention of the need to Quarrantine on the flight.. just a request to fill in your details which DS ended up putting in the bin because there was nowhere else to put them.

AIBU to think that the govt have a completely half arsed attitude to this.. nothing to stop DS from coming home with us, and completely ignoring Quarrantine rules as no one checking ? I rented a friends Airbnb for him. It cost 275 for two weeks (mates rates) .. have I just wasted a pile of money by trying to be responsible and following give advice ? When no one seems that bothered. DS pretty sure one of his friends is just going to go to work and tell them he went to Portugal - they would t know otherwise !

OP, if you look at the guidance of where you have a family member who HAS coronavirus, they aren't cast out of the home and kept in a separate house alone, are they? No, they stay in a separate room with food brought to them for 7 (or is it 14 days), using the bathroom at different time for others, using different utensils etc.

So if your son came back with Covid, there is no reason why he should be in a different house alone.

Quarantine rules are crazy.
I recently visited relatives in a EU country which still has an airbridge..
Prior to returning to the UK I filled in the immigration form online as required.
I got to Dunkirk without stopping for my ferry.
The border official told me that on arrival in the UK I had to quarantine for two weeks. This was last Wednesday.
I told him where I had come from and that I hadn't stopped anywhere in accordance to the government rules
He told me that was irrelevant as I was going to be on a ferry with other customers who have been in countries which have no air bridge.
So effectively over ruling government official advice.
No one knows what the hell they're on about.
I was back at work this morning.

@insideoutsider

OP, if you look at the guidance of where you have a family member who HAS coronavirus, they aren't cast out of the home and kept in a separate house alone, are they? No, they stay in a separate room with food brought to them for 7 (or is it 14 days), using the bathroom at different time for others, using different utensils etc.

So if your son came back with Covid, there is no reason why he should be in a different house alone.

Even then it won't be possible for a lot of people. If either of us get Covid we'll be carrying on as normal with our living arrangements so it wouldn't have crossed my mind to quarantine elsewhere if I'd come back from abroad!

In Ireland this rule has applied for over seas travel since march.
Yes people are doing as you did renting apt for 2 weeks getting supplies delivered. Cannot leave it or see others.
In some cases I have heard of people coming home however other members of household moving out.

How on Earth does quarantine work if he is at home with family who all go out and about ??

It's about limiting risk, and making track and trace easy, it's not about eliminating risk, that would be disproportionate to the actual risk.

Track and trace doesn't work well across international borders, and doesn't work when you travel extensively with lots of strangers. So because of that additional risk, quarantining becomes reasonable, most people would be quarantining full self contained, because most households do travel together. For the few households that don't - such as yours - it would be a disproportionate and unreasonable burden to force you to bear the extra costs.

If any of you in the family catch it though, then track and trace is likely to be reliable, so only a few potential cases even if he bring it in. The level of restrictions need to be proportionate to the risk (otherwise people will completely ignore them, even if you believe the restrictions are worth it in principle)

The issue is the govt seems unable to update official guidance. Official govt guidance on covid is contradictory (and I don’t even need to grapple with workplace or school guidance!)

Why can’t we do proper quarantine of our borders and why the hell didn’t we do it in March when it could have saved thousands of lives. It’s a travesty.