What would you do?

[RedPandaFluff]

DH, DD and I live in England (Tier 2). My parents and sister's family live in Northern Ireland. Until today, DH, DD and I planned to fly over for the five-day window. We would stay, as we always have when we visit them, in my deceased Gran's place (a self-contained flat built on to the main house when my Gran got older, so that she would still have her independence but be near my folks if she needed them).

I can't work out whether travel restrictions have or will be imposed, but I don't know what to do if they aren't. Should we still go, and stay in the flat, bar Christmas Day when we're allowed to mix? We have no vulnerable people in the family. My DD is a year old and has barely seen her NI family since she was born.

I am heartbroken at the thought of cancelling our plans, but I also don't want to be selfish and contribute to this virus' spread. WWYD?

That's why it's such a dilemma, @Skipsurvey - TECHNICALLY it's still okay for us to go, but I feel uneasy about it.

We talked about it with my parents last night, and they absolutely want us to come over, but I know that if we decide not to, they'll be upset but accept the decision and won't make us feel bad about it or anything. I just don't know when they'll be able to see DD. She's a year old and they're strangers to her; just faces on a screen.

@HopefulMama2020 yes, a travel ban will be an unequivocal end to the debate, won't it? I wonder if they'll go that far.

@Bellabelloo it's so hard, isn't it? Stressful, when something you've looked forward to for so long is hanging in the balance.

@RedPandaFluff
The risk might be low, but not as low as staying at home. The new strain is reportedly 70% more transmissible than the old version. There could be any number of asymptomatic people at the airport and on the flight, from all over the place. You would be touching things they had touched and sharing air with them in a confined space. It looks like it might be possible and legal to make the journey, but if as you say, you don’t want to risk being responsible for spreading the virus, the only thing to do is to stay at home.

What would I do? I would stay at home.

Whilst you might not spread or catch it by travelling, you definitely won't if you don't.

I meant to add a sympathetic 😔 to my post. It’s horrible, but staying local is what we have been asked to do. My parents are in their 80s and I haven’t seen them since last Christmas. Everyone is suffering, but this new strain has frightened the PM so badly that he has made this humiliating and unpopular U-turn. Things are very bad, and they became very bad in the south east very quickly. Stay local.

I'd go. Those saying that it will get better in the spring are wrong. In order to stop the spread we have to vaccinate 52 million people approximately. Everyone needs two doses. So even if we get up to a million vaccines done a week ( and we haven't even managed 100,000 in a week so far) that's still 2022. Yes restrictions will ease as the vulnerable are vaccinated but there is much still unknown about how long virus protection will last and the efficacy (or even dose size) of the main vaccine the UK is relying on.

If it is allowed, I would go.