Mandatory hotel quarantine in the UK

[Circumlocutious]

There was the New Zealand thread which touched on this, but I thought it’s helpful to have a more targeted discussion. Mandatory hotel quarantine for all UK arrivals, likely to be signed off on tomorrow.

Twitter thread from FT journalist discussing some of the complex aspects involved:

mobile.twitter.com/SebastianEPayne/status/1353657496716660737

Do you think it’ll ‘work’? (presumably its main purpose is to stop new covid variants from coming in). Why / why not?

Watermelon hopefully a mistake

Pointless otherwise

@Indoctro

What about people working offshore abroad, my husband is doing 9 weeks away and only 2/3 weeks home at the moment because of covid. So are they saying he literally can't see his family at all because of his job..??

Surely they can't push this on key workers working internationally

Up until now they have been exempted from quarantine

Agreed...

Pretty much anybody working in the international side of logistics and crossing borders has the same problem - hauliers, ships crews, airline crew (they're carrying more freight than people these days)..you can't expect them to go off to work, in some cases be quarantined "on the turn", away from home and then also be hit with week or more quarantine on return to the UK..

There will have to continue to be exemptions.

@addicted2spaniels

The principle is great, but I can't see how on earth you police Brits who think that their holiday in the sun is their "human right" and that they simply can't go on without a "break". That's the only people this is targetting....... slebs "working" in Dubai and the Maldives will just fly in by private jet, and there will be so many exceptions that it will end up like the support bubble rules - a complete fucking joke that everyone adapts to suit themselves.

Sadly I think you’re right. To get out of this mess long term we need to address these issues and make sure everyone is treated the same, no loopholes, no special treatment...

@MarshaBradyo

Just heard on radio it’s from countries with dangerous variant - pretty sure variants can travel in from anywhere

That would make it redundant. By the time a new variant has been sequenced and deemed to be ‘dangerous’ it’ll probably be in the UK already

Pandering to xenophobes. And it won't make the blindest bit of difference to numbers. The people it will effect will be normal folk with human tragedies. Eg: People coparenting across a border (I know quite a few franglais families who do this and have been stuck away from their children for weeks). And how long will it go on for?

(So basically one has to enter the uk via Ireland)

How is it pandering to xenophobes?
It makes good sense to stop flights in and out, stop the spread, other countries have done it.
It affects British people flying in and out too, nothing to do with people wanting to keep forriners out which is what you seem to be implying?

QuentinInQuarantino everything you've said.
People all for it I don't think realise how many people travelling aren't on their jollies.
Interestingly its actually not gone over well with the DM crowd. I think they've twigged it will affect them too.

Rather than bring in pointless new restrictions they could perhaps make a start on properly enforcing those we already have ... or would that risk bringing common sense into it?

It has to be done. The next step will be vaccine passports. Those with a vaccine passport will be exempt.

I'm glad to hear there will still be exemptions for international workers, my husband already has to do 10 days government quarantine in KL, then another 5 days in Miri, plus another week after departing the rig in Malaysia , plus the 6 weeks working on the rig. Only so much a person can do.

These guys can't be expected to quarantine again in uk when only getting home for 2 weeks.

@wixked

It has to be done. The next step will be vaccine passports. Those with a vaccine passport will be exempt.

Although wouldn’t a new vaccine busting variant still get this person - the variants we want to keep out

Obvs we can’t keep this up forever though. Mind bending or maybe long day

Because nobody is traveling unless they need to anyway. the people who are traveling into the uk are those who are exempt for work related reasons and a tiny percentage with family emergencies. The exempt will continue to be exempt and bring it in anyway.

The govt want you to blame foreigners bringing it in rather than focus on their ineptitude. Alarming how successful they are at that.

Presumably the pressure is coming from the fact that the 77 cases found in this country of the South African variant & the 9 cases of the Brazilian variant are all connected with air travel. That's the problem - we have the evidence that these variants are already being brought into the country and unless we take some measures to stop this, all the work vaccinating everyone will come to nothing.
What a mess.

It makes good sense to stop flights in and out,

No it doesn't.. plenty of essential freight (especially medical related from China and India) is still being flown into the Uk in the holds of mostly empty passenger aircraft, and many of the few passengers flying are Brits travelling to/from essential work, some medical related, some logistics related, others working in the other essential industries such as Indoctro's partner..

The better approach is (and always has been) along the lines Puzzeledandpissed off mentioned - properly enforcing the travel and the quarantine rules we have had for months.

@musicalfrog

If it means opening schools sooner then yes please!

(and yes they should have done this months ago it's a no brainer!)

Yes exactly! I can’t believe we are basically doing nothing, going no where (except work), kids cooped up with no prospect in sight of getting back to school or sports clubs...but then people are quibbling about the prospect of quarantine after a trip abroad.

I’d gladly forego going abroad for a year or more to allow kids to get back to some normality as a priority. Plus it’s a great chance to start thinking more about the planet too and limiting unnecessary trips.

@Indoctro why should your DH be exempt to quarantine here, when other countries think he should quarantine. Why dos he suddenly become special in this country? There is a reason he has to quarantine in other countries, that same reason applies here too.

@notimagain

It makes good sense to stop flights in and out,

No it doesn't.. plenty of essential freight (especially medical related from China and India) is still being flown into the Uk in the holds of mostly empty passenger aircraft, and many of the few passengers flying are Brits travelling to/from essential work, some medical related, some logistics related, others working in the other essential industries such as Indoctro's partner..

The better approach is (and always has been) along the lines Puzzeledandpissed off mentioned - properly enforcing the travel and the quarantine rules we have had for months.

How do you properly enforce it?

People all for it I don't think realise how many people travelling aren't on their jollies.

I think most people who support this measure do realise that. But you can't keep such restrictive measures as national school closures in place for the long term while also continuing to allow fairly unrestricted international travel.

For all the focus on schools and certain business sectors being a driver of spread, tightening the borders is the single measure we could take that would really bring case numbers right down and lead to greater success with the vaccination programme.

@wixked

It has to be done. The next step will be vaccine passports. Those with a vaccine passport will be exempt.

Vaccine passports are way in the future, they'd need to be an international standard/recognition for starters.

The EU are working on a standard they would recognise but how would we be involved in that scheme? a letter from your GP? i doubt that will satisfy anyone.

This is utterly pointless as long as anyone can bypass it via Dublin airport and the Irish border. They will never close the border so Ireland would also have to implement hotel quarantine and their government currently isn't keen to do so from what I've read.

How do you manage this at the channel tunnel? It's a totally different beast than an airport.

This is pure populism and it won't work.

Pandering to xenophobes

If I'm a foreigner locking myself into the UK, am I pandering to xeno philes? Or, if I'm willingly locked out of my birth country for the greater good, am I in xeno fear of myself? 🤔 🤯

@PicsInRed

Pandering to xenophobes

If I'm a foreigner locking myself into the UK, am I pandering to xeno philes? Or, if I'm willingly locked out of my birth country for the greater good, am I in xeno fear of myself? 🤔 🤯

Just short sighted

Israel has banned all flights which is full on

@MarshaBradyo

How do you properly enforce it?

Good question - With the numbers coming in now I would have thought, finally, at the very least the police could indulge at the very least in a bit of knocking on doors on a regular basis.

@jasjas1973. How are vaccine passports of any use if it is not known if the vaccine prevents transmission?