Quarantine buddies - anybody out there also paying the price for having got away?

[Pacif1cDogwood]

Just back from Tenerife.

Holiday was planned almost a year ago, when Covid was not on the horizon.
Flew out after quarantining for Spain was lifted, all of Spain back on the list shortly after our arrival. Foreign Office continued to advice to stay put and not cut holiday short (would have cost several ££££ to bring 5 of us back at short notice anyway, was prohibitive).

So, lovely time was had, we are now back and my hope against hope that the Canaries would have had some sort of special dispensation has obviously not come to pass. Ho hum. Sitting at home, will be working from home, DSs will be missing start of school (Scotland) and dog is under walked....

Anybody else who'd like a moan and mutual support?

Anyone else have a really low mood because of this? I've been tearful everyday. I hope I will feel better when I am back to work next week - although wfh is not such a distraction as working out the home.

We had to cut our trip short and I am mourning that as feel it could be the last for a long time with Dd who is 17. Now we're at teens care back in screens and in their rooms and usually outings would give us quality time together.

But really, I just need to go for a walk, that is what I would usually do for low mood. This is starting to feel like a cruel way to treat citizens who dared to leave the country when they were permitted to do so.

Quarantining people for 2 weeks following travel abroad could be detrimental to the economy. If we don't leave the house for two weeks, we won't be making impulse purchases in garden centres or local shops as we had been. We won't be out buying ice creams, fish and chips, paying to park, buying fuel or eating out in a pub garden. That might be worth it if people returning from abroad are infected and it stops them passing it on but we don't know if that is the case. I suspect many families who visited france acted like mine - went to a rural location, only spent time outdoors, wore a mask in shops, traveled in their own vehicle.

Sorry, but if you left the house before then symptomatic or not and spread COVID about, then a lot more people won't be making impulse purchases for a far longer time.

With social distancing, hand sanitising and mask wearing measures in place for all those activities, you think we'd be spreading covid? What's the point of SD and mask wearing then? Many areas of the UK, age demographics and job types have a bigger percentage of covid infections than rural France. If those measures don't help, we're all in trouble. Infection spread is most common indoors, amongst family and friends.

Anyway, my point was to counter the idea that quarantine was imposed to help out the UK economy by making people holiday at home.

I went to Spain knowing I'd have to quarantine on my return. I was really dreading it but it hasn't been too bad. I've been working just as I would have been anyway, online delivery is easy to get now and it was so absolutely worth it. Months of lockdown, working and trying to homeschool an ADHD child as a single parent nearly broke me.

*With social distancing, hand sanitising and mask wearing measures in place for all those activities, you think we'd be spreading covid?

These things are just part of the protective armoury. Quarantine in another key part. And, to be honest, if you are wanting to skip quarantine, I don't think you'd be too dedicated to the routine of the other three.

The Claws - could you quote me where I say I want to skip quarantine? My point was theoretical to counter another posters point. Can you recognise the distinction?

I've been dedicated to all 3 since March.

Today I'm appealing for a walk - many peoples mental health rely on this - but have no intention of breaking the rules, however arbitrary they are.

My use of "you" was not specific to you personally. You seem a bit ambivalent about quarantine anyway, as most of us would be.

I'm happy enough to stay away from other people for two weeks if that is what is dictated. No leaving the house to walk around the block or walk the dog - much less so.

@ThatDirection hope you're doing OK? I suffer with low mood too and agree it's not being able to walk which is the worst part, the rest isn't so bad. I do think it's pretty extreme that the rules for this quarantine are even stricter than they were for the general lockdown previously when the UK was at its worst...im not sure why isolated exercise away from others could not be permitted. However, them's the rules so we have to stick to them. My kids are utterly feral on Day 4 and getting nastier to each other by the minute...

I’m currently in France, been here 2 weeks so the rules changed a week in! We are leaving tomorrow and are just grateful we got to go on holiday at all. Not looking forward to quarantine but we have a supermarket delivery already booked with lots of treats for the day we get back. I’m slightly worried about the DC (13 and 10) becoming completely feral - any tips?

Thanks @iamthewaiting I woke up again with a feeling of doom but got up earlier and started to get on with something so feel better than wallowing. It probably sounds quite pathetic to many. My sadness is partly wrapped up in it being my dd1s last year of being home with us as Uni looms and me wanting to savour as many moments with her or us as a family as possible. Being confined to home and not being able to go out to do stuff together and then going straight back into school/college busyness feels like lost time.

Anyway, on to today. DH is going to do a silly youtube exercise video with dd2 - like he did during the original lockdown and I am going to start yoga. I was going to do a 30 day yoga challenge in September but I will start it sooner so I have something motivational to.

Tips for others facing quarantine? I did a big online shop with lots of treats and wrote up a 14 day meal plan. Added in some BBQs and fancy food nights, roast dinner etc...Ordered a few garden games - which a lot of people did during lockdown anyway - coerce the kids out into the garden if you have one. Start sorting out the new school term stuff - make sure everyone has what they need and get it ordered so you're not burdened by it as soon as you come out of quarantine. Count down the days to the end rather than counting up!

ThatDirection

I am with you 100%, I feel extremely resentful that I can't take exercise and walk the dog.

There is no evidence that doing so is a public health risk.

The government has entirely overreached and this is simply a punishment for daring to holiday abroad.

I don't think the weather is helping as most of the time it is raining so we literally are confined within 4 walls.

Like you I have complied with all restrictions, in the past I have felt them to be mostly reasonable.

Locking up healthy people in their homes for 14 days is not reasonable. It's disproportionate and punitive.

can'tdothisnow I agree. It does feel punitive. I feel like our neighbours were tut-tutting at us. It's a horrible feeling.

The other thing is it is difficult to ask friends to put themselves out to help me when I am fit and well and know I did not spend anytime abroad putting myself at risk of contracting the virus.

If I ever have to self isolate because I have symptoms or a positive test, then I have friends I could ask to help me with shopping, post office, walking the dog. But I can't ask people to put themselves out when I am well and just twiddling my thumbs at home. I won't do that.

We got back from France yesterday - quarantine got put in place a few days after we arrived - we had a sense it would happen but had no grounds to cancel prior to leaving. All very stressful...we decided to at least have a week of the planned 2 week trip but get back in time for the kids to finish quarantine before school. I’m not to upset about having to quarantine but I feel bad for the kids. Also I’m pretty annoyed as there are so many people who seem to be dodging quarantine - I.e. not filling out the form and taking the chance that they won’t be called out at the airport or the Eurotunnel (and saying that it’s worth a possible fine of £100)....or claiming to have driven straight through from Italy. Makes me feel like a right numpty to be following the rules (despite the fact that we were in an isolated house in the middle of nowhere and apart from one supermarket trip at the start of the holiday had no contact with anyone while out there!) Also feeling quite stressed about being “checked up on”....is someone going to knock on the door and demand we all line up to be counted?!

I'm on day 7 of 14, no contact so far! I know what you mean though, no one asked to see the form. We were in a motorhome and could easily have lied about where we'd been!

So frustrating isn’t it - you want to do the right thing but when you look at all the risky things that people are doing in the uk (parties, cinemas, bowling allies, public transport) it just doesn’t make sense. Was also stressing about what the correct timing was for counting the quarantine days - on another thread it says that the day of travel is day 0 whereas earlier on this thread someone said it’s day 1....would clearly prefer the latter! 😂

Another one in quarantine having come from Spain here.

I’m very worried about how long this will last because my mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer while I was there.

I would like to be able go to her funeral (In Spain people are buried the day after they die) or be able to fly as soon as she starts to deteriorate , but then what do I do when I come back?

I cannot stay at a hotel for 14 days and my husband doesn’t want to move in with his parents once our daughter starts going to school.

We may have to find a way for me to be around the house as little as possible.

What gets me is some of the people exempt from quarantine are those working with the most vulnerable and those in the best position to spread Covid including health care workers and carers
www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules

I do think self isolating was made harder than lickdown to discourage travel to try and contain outbreaks

647647 I believe other hpusehold members don't have to quatantine if they haven't been away. It would just be you and your allowed to do that in your house. Sorry to hear about your mum.

@ThatDirection
This is starting to feel like a cruel way to treat citizens who dared to leave the country when they were permitted to do so.
You chose to leave the country to go on a holiday, be grateful that you were able to and deal with having to quarantine. Talk about an over-reaction.

@cantdothisnow1
am with you 100%, I feel extremely resentful that I can't take exercise and walk the dog
And I’m sure all the families who have lost someone due to Covid (me included) are very resentful that you are not willing to or are moaning about having to quarantine when you made the decision to go on holiday, which is hardly a necessity.

the decision to go on holiday, which is hardly a necessity.

I made that decision last autumn before Covid had been heard of. The government then made the decision to say it was safe to travel so that the £2.5 spent on the holiday had to stay spent.

Going to pubs, restaurants, theme parks etc. in the U.K. is hardly a necessity and people doing that are more likely to catch and spread covid than me sitting in an isolated gite and not going anywhere.

Since March I followed the rules precisely. After restrictions were eased I made the decision to carry on in the same vein and haven’t been anywhere but my local shop for food.

By the time I’ve finished my 14 day quarantine I actually won’t have had contact with anyone other than DH, DS and the border control guy for over three weeks! For week before that I still wasn’t in contact with anyone apart from at the supermarket with EVERYONE in masks (unlike the U.K.) in a region of France that has had less than 50 cases and just 1death (unlike the area I live which has had 11000 cases).

Those who have lost people to this virus have my sympathy but this quarantine rule is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The rules should have been the same as the original lockdown so people could still go out and exercise (alone or with their fellow quarantiners).

@LadyPenelope68

I'm very sorry to you and to anyone else who has lost a loved one, it is absolutely dreadful.

I also have no objection to REASONABLE restrictions on return from holiday.

However there is no science to support a contention that a walk in the fresh air with or without a dog poses any form of public health risk, particularly given that:

• People in UK hotspots are not prevented from doing so, some of these have higher infection rates than the countries we are returning from, and

• Even at the height of the pandemic we were actively encouraged to go out an exercise for at least an hour a day, (the exception being the shielded).

If you read the posts on here no one is either breaching the rules or objecting to reasonable restrictions.

We are allowed to moan about the rules that are clearly excessive though.

So I think your anger is misplaced.The government ought to have imposed a stringent quarantine on those entering the UK from Italy etc in February and March, they didn't and were instead advocating herd immunity. That is one of the reasons so many, sadly, lost their lives. The also ought to have taken strict action against those who travelled up country symptomatic when we were on a stay at home order, but apparently that was OK too.

@cantdothisnow1
Yet another self centred post. You went on holiday, deal with the restrictions.