South America isolation

[KarenMarlow3]

The government has banned travel from South America and says that British and Irish nationals entering the UK must self isolate for 10 days.
Why isn't self isolation being enforced, instead of the wishy washy statement telling people to do so?
The government could use hotels - they are empty right now, and drive arrivals directly to a hotel, where they are forced to stay for ten days. They should be looked after by staff wearing complete, medical grade PPE.
As things stand, even those willing to self isolate will need to travel, possibly on public transport, to arrive at their destination, and may be infecting people as they travel.
I am fed up with the UK's half hearted measures.

They should be looked after by staff wearing complete, medical grade PPE.

Who is gonna pay for that? Do you want Aus/NZ model where the returners have to pay the full price of their quarantine -- Aus/NZ also rations how many can return each day/week. People banned out of their own countries.

I agree with you OP. This is a different case to folks returning from holiday (though arguably they should have done this too).

Regarding the cost? Drop in the ocean compared to what the total cost will be.

There's just too many gaps in our armour. I'm feeling more scared daily.

Who is gonna pay for that? Do you want Aus/NZ model where the returners have to pay the full price of their quarantine -- Aus/NZ also rations how many can return each day/week. People banned out of their own countries.

Yep! This is exactly what we should be doing. People shouldn't be travelling during a pandemic. It's selfish.

People shouldn't be travelling during a pandemic. It's selfish.

What about people who travelled in Dec'19 or January '20 & who are still NOW denied entry to own countries.

It’s always “what about?” Or “what about” when it should be WE MUST STOP THIS. There is a dangerous variant in South America and now is our chance to shut it out.

@lljkk

They should be looked after by staff wearing complete, medical grade PPE.

Who is gonna pay for that? Do you want Aus/NZ model where the returners have to pay the full price of their quarantine -- Aus/NZ also rations how many can return each day/week. People banned out of their own countries.

As a Kiwi currently in the position of being effectively locked out of my own country, I can say that I understand the reasoning and accept it.

I agree, people made decisions to travel during a pandemic now they will have to deal with the consequences. Like lots of people I know who mixed over Christmas... and ill relatives now sadly. It’s an informed decision

They should be looked after by staff wearing complete, medical grade PPE
The government should pay for this. You can't expect everyone to be able to afford to stay for 10 days in a hotel.
If they can afford furlough, they can afford this.

All the restrictions announced, including the quarantine and negative test, for arrivals in the country are totally theoretical. The news were reporting from airports last night and this morning - absolutely nothing People with negative test results that hadn't been checked, no-one was asked for their contact details.

@KarenMarlow3

They should be looked after by staff wearing complete, medical grade PPE The government should pay for this. You can't expect everyone to be able to afford to stay for 10 days in a hotel. If they can afford furlough, they can afford this.

Or you could look at it from the other way, people who can afford air travel (holidays/business/family visits) can also afford to pay for their own quarantine.

Furlough benefited tens of millions directly and made Lockdown effective and possible. Whatever quarantine policy you want to enforce, wouldn't be remotely as cost-effective if paid for by govt.

@KarenMarlow3

The government has banned travel from South America and says that British and Irish nationals entering the UK must self isolate for 10 days. Why isn't self isolation being enforced, instead of the wishy washy statement telling people to do so? The government could use hotels - they are empty right now, and drive arrivals directly to a hotel, where they are forced to stay for ten days. They should be looked after by staff wearing complete, medical grade PPE. As things stand, even those willing to self isolate will need to travel, possibly on public transport, to arrive at their destination, and may be infecting people as they travel. I am fed up with the UK's half hearted measures.

Totally agree.

@KarenMarlow3

The government should pay for this

'The government' (all of us really) should only pay for those still stranded who travelled before March 2020.

Those who travelled after that date have done it at their own risk (i.e. they knew about the pandemic) and should pay their way out of this. Maybe a very small number of cases (e.g. those flying for compassionate reasons) could be exempt, but not the rest.

@KarenMarlow3

They should be looked after by staff wearing complete, medical grade PPE The government should pay for this. You can't expect everyone to be able to afford to stay for 10 days in a hotel. If they can afford furlough, they can afford this.

Why should the government pay for people coming back from seeing their family or doing business?

@KarenMarlow3

They should be looked after by staff wearing complete, medical grade PPE The government should pay for this. You can't expect everyone to be able to afford to stay for 10 days in a hotel. If they can afford furlough, they can afford this.

No even in other countries you have to self fund (part if not all)

Do you all really think that this varient isn't already all over the globe?

@MaxNormal

Do you all really think that this varient isn't already all over the globe?

Maybe it’s too late for this one - but what about the next one? Which may be vaccine resistant. Our failure to control our borders stringently is disgraceful and dangerous.

@MaxNormal

Do you all really think that this varient isn't already all over the globe

I agree, it's very likely

Maybe it’s too late for this one - but what about the next one? Which may be vaccine resistant. Our failure to control our borders stringently is disgraceful and dangerous.

I can understand wanting to control movement when cases are very high and we've started the vaccine roll out but longer term if we do get variants that require a different vaccine we'll need to just tweak that as per flu.
We're in a globalised world and we can't keep shutting borders, its not realistic.

@lljkk yes I'd 100% support a NZ/Australia model where people pay to stay in government run quarantine.

@oneglassandpuzzled why? Because there's a pandemic.

You seem to be saying contradictory things: that you think people should pay for their quarantine and that you think the government should pay.

@KarenMarlow3

100% agree with your post.

It really does beggar belief that so many are still travelling in and out of the UK without any proper follow up or checks.

@oneglassandpuzzled

It doesn't matter who the f* pays for it - as long as they do it!!!!

Yes, there should be a proper quarantine in airport hotels, paid for by the traveller.
Otherwise they don’t get to fly into the UK.

Otherwise they don’t get to fly into the UK

Exactly. And it should be irrespective of where they are travelling from (as some apparently are flying from Brazil but stopping over somewhere else to by-pass the ban)