How can you make sure people are isolating??

[Chestergirl39]

I heard on the news this morning that only a really low percentage of people actually self isolate or quarantine when they have been officially told to do so, either by test and trace or after a holiday.

Obviously this could be one factor in the recent increase but what can be done to check people are doing it? Should they be checked up on? Why aren’t people doing it?

Does anyone admit to not doing it, and if so, why not?

Holiday returners tagged or unannounced drop in checks with heft enforceable fines.

This is why I think it was daft to allow people to fly abroad, they never had a hope in hell of being able to enforce this.

Need to look at why people don't comply and support them to comply.

Fines etc don't work.

What works is a feeling of all pulling together. Britain stopped all pulling together in the early eighties! But it has been escalated since 2020.

If I would not get paid for self-isolating, and then would get into rent/mortgage arrears, I bloody well wouldn't isolate either. I wouldn't even get a test.

Maybe we shouldn't have fucked our social welfare system... Because we are all paying now.

Isn't this what Covid marshalls were meant to check up n?

Also schools and workplaces will play a role by not letting back those who should be isolating (they have a duty of care to all their other employees and pupils' plus PHE/equivalent will be on their case already).

Which might not stop all people making other breaches (not least as not everyone has an employer) but it's a pretty big reminder that younare meant to be staying home at all times

Get, since 2010 I meant! Austerity, cuts etc.

I think this has been quite badly/unfairly reported as people not being bothered to isolate and going out to the pub. The report itself said the most common reasons to break isolation were to get food or medicine or for caring responsibilities, and that we need to get better support infrastructures in for isolation. People start the isolation period intending to follow it exactly (about 80% of them) but almost all seem to find it practically impossible to literally not leave the house in two weeks; if we want to improve things we need to help them not just call them selfish pricks.

Covid Marshalls are fictional. There's no additional funding for them.

I'm sad to say but people really need to stop believing this specific government. Most of the announcements are just placatory words designed to make people who don't know much about the real world feel better

They can say 'covid marshalls' because core Tory voters would never even be in a city centre at pub chucking out time, so they stay in their houses merrily imagining the marshalls exist in real life. A free vote winner!

One of my FB friends came back from spain (when you had to isolate, I don't know if you still do) and jetted off on another holiday less than a week later! I couldn't believe she was allowed to travel again. I think with travel people don't isolate because they can get away with not doing so very easily.

WRT to test and trace instructions it's probably because it causes massive disruption to people's lives and livelihoods to isolate for 2 weeks when no one is showing any signs of being unwell, so if they can get away with it, they will do what is best for thier families.

I really do think they should have come down hard on Dominic Cummings, I think that was the point the Government lost the compliance of many people who were following the rules.

People aren't going to isolate if it means they lose two weeks (or more) or their income every time. It's just not feasible. How are they supposed to pay their rent and feed themselves and their families?

My child's class was told to isolate as teacher tested positive, a few of his friends were all playing out still and 1 of them even went on holiday to a really busy place. Photos were put all over Facebook.

If you want to ensure people comply adopt the Chinese method: you go directly from the airport to a quarantine facility (hotel) where you are allocated a room, tested, unable to leave for 14 days, your temperature is checked every day by a health official, all meals are delivered and left outside your door, tested again on day 12 and if negative free to leave on day 14. All costs associated with this are paid by the person being quarantined.
This is what my dh experienced when he returned to China in March. He came back to the uk in July and self isolated (as per govt regulations) for 14 days and nobody even phoned to check he was at home.

But even that only works for people who are self-isolating due to travel, @ShanghaiDiva - unless you're going to start putting people in the hotel if they're identified as contacts, test positive, etc? Which is pretty impractical on a number of grounds. Better travel isolation would be a start but I don't think it covers the majority of people who should be self-isolating or the main reason that cases are rising so rapidly at the moment.

People who have been in contact with someone who has tested positive have to be tested. My dh had an app on his phone with a green code that would allow eg to enter the metro station, if a contact rests positive your app will turn red and no more access, test with a negative result and you are back to green.
Self isolation at home where I lived in China meant that a public health official came to your home once per day to take your temp and confirm you were at home. Your front door would have a pink tape across is so it’s obvious if anyone has tried to leave.

@ShanghaiDiva

If you want to ensure people comply adopt the Chinese method: you go directly from the airport to a quarantine facility (hotel) where you are allocated a room, tested, unable to leave for 14 days, your temperature is checked every day by a health official, all meals are delivered and left outside your door, tested again on day 12 and if negative free to leave on day 14. All costs associated with this are paid by the person being quarantined. This is what my dh experienced when he returned to China in March. He came back to the uk in July and self isolated (as per govt regulations) for 14 days and nobody even phoned to check he was at home.

What if people don't have the money to pay those "associated costs?"

Do they just have to go into more and more debt each time they're forced to self isolate?

Any costs incurred by people having to isolate should be covered by the government, surely?

When my dh returned to China there was a sliding scale of accommodation and costs. He paid about £40 per day for a large room with bathroom and all meals, but there were cheaper options. He could also have shopping and food delivered to his room twice per week eg takeaway pizza etc.
Everyone is aware that if you leave and return to China you will be subject to quarantine and the associated costs. Payment is taken at the start of the quarantine period.

I don’t think many Chinese are travelling overseas at the moment. Most people going into quarantine that I know of are returning expats where the company will pay the costs. Some airlines are only just starting to operate again in China so flights have been very expensive, my dh paid £5k for a single business class ticket to London in July and people are not flying off on holiday. The national holiday starts next week but the Chinese are being encouraged not to leave their province.

You cant really. I was in tesco express yesterday and there was a drunk man and his teenage son who had school uniform on stumbling around - neither had masks on. He unded up infront of me in the queue and he started ranting to the woman behind the till about how his wife was ill and he had to pick his son up from school because his wife had her text through that morning saying she had covid. Obviously buying his cans was more important. He shouldn't have been at school in the first place and definitely not wandering around tesco with no masks on. The poor woman behind the till looked so panicked and so did the old lady behind me. I was raging!

That's interesting, I always thought there was no point in testing right after contact with a confirmed positive unless symptomatic, because you could be negative but positive a few days later? I take it China disagree with that then?

Talking to friends in the city I used to live in, they were tested twice (2 days apart) and her dd could only return to school after the second negative test.

I should think it's impossible to enforce.

I am nearing the end of a 14 day isolation from the school I work in, because two students in my form tested positive.
The govt guidance is 10 days isolation but my school won't let me back before 14 days. So technically I can go out this weekend, although I'm not allowed back in work until weds (ie I've done the 10 days iso)

The only part of this that's enforced is me not being allowed in work. Absolutely no one would have known if I had gone out during the last 2 weeks. I have completely abided by the rules and stayed at home, but (fortunately I feel perfectly well) it's been tricky and I can appreciate not everyone will comply.

The sad fact is some people are selfish and do not want to have their lives disrupted, moan about new restrictions but do not equate this with the consequences of their own behaviour. The collective responsibility just is not there. DCs college bubble are supposed to be self isolating but apparently lots have been out and about as normal shopping, gym, eating out because parents feel 'it's not fair' to make them isolate.

I travelled to Canada recently where they have a strictly enforced two week quarentine upon arrival. You have to provide a quarentine plan and authorities check up on you a couple of times during the two weeks.

I work in a supermarket and have had customers come in and chatting about how they 'only got off a plane an hour ago', so of course people aren't.

People won't isolate so international holidays should just be banned.

If you can’t afford the associated costs, then you just don’t go abroad on holiday. Why on earth should the government pay?

We should never have let people go off to other countries and trust them all to quarantine. It’s a complete farce.

Exactly. I have very little sympathy when people book holidays and then complain about quarantining or losing out financially.

Just don't go. Holidays are a luxury not a necessity.