Who's currently cancelling their holiday to Portugal then?

[diggingatrench]

And it's annoying they didn't use the watch list idea and it smacks entirely as only being opened up to let the football happen.

The numbers in Portugal have been lower than here even taking into account the population differences.

My mother in law who lives there was due to fly over on Thursday. She hasn't seen her son or grandchildren for 18 months.

Luckily she's managed to change her flight to an earlier one so she can still come.

It's bloody ridiculous.

Why people would even have booked a holiday abroad this year is beyond me

Many haven't. They are holidays booked back in 2019 for 2020 which then got re-booked and re-booked and re-booked because holiday companies were being awkward about giving refunds - they were refusing to cancel holidays to destinations on the amber list despite government advice that people should only travel to these places in an emergency.

What was the point of getting vaccinated? A shitshow if ever I saw one. I want my life back. The variants are just going to keep on coming. Time to get on with it

Actually I’m British but live abroad in an amber list country - I flew in and fully observed the quarantine requirements and will need to do again when I return watermelon 222 ....
What I have seen is a worryingly high number of brits failing to observe masking requirements - in my amber country this wouldn’t be allowed and you would definitely not be able to shop or use public transit without a mask - the cases in the uk are on the rise again and it’s easy to see why

This is why I won’t be booking a holiday out of the U.K. this all happened last year, quick changes of the traffic light system. People having to cancel holidays. I don’t mind testing I do it for work but I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle just for a holiday! I get need for caution but this government still can’t get the balance and timing right can they.

We might well be doing very well with vaccines although it’s only 50% fully vaccinated I think. Other countries are not. I’m amazed they want to risk us with our rates increasing with the Indian variant tbh.

I agree, this is ridiculous!
Travelling will be a luxury for the very few if this continues!
Surely, no tour operator is able to survive an other year without any meaningful income.

As someone else has said , what is the point of the vaccinations then? They seem to be going well but we are in the same position we were 12 months ago
Maybe they should have saved the money and sent us all a crate of wine instead! That might have helped .
It's all a bit off to me, and now a "Nepal variant" on the same day , as if to back the government's decision.

@Needanewhat

Why people would even have booked a holiday abroad this year is beyond me

It was obvious it was going to go tits up

Loads of reasons. Rescheduled from last year because too expensive to cancel. Holidays in the UK are extortionate atm. You could go abroad for a week for cheaper. Some people will say any holiday is unnecessary but lots of people live for their holidays and like to have something to look forward to.

Not portugal but we are booked for Spain in August and after this stupid decision will almost certainly be cancelling.
Even if it does end up on the green list it will be no holiday if i'm stressing the whole time about it ending up on amber or red. If it was dh and I I'd possibly risk it but with the kids too, no way.

Very luckily we also have a UK hol booked so that will have to be it for this year.

Has Portugal had a surge in cases then @diggingatrench

It's a shame for anyone due to fly shortly unless they are able to quarantine but was always a possibility so they shouldn't be too surprised.

Oh come on you lot! The advice is to NOT go on holiday to Amber list countries. It's been clear that Portugal was going to be ambered and that others would make the red list.

Holidays are NOT essential travel.

I haven't booked a foreign holiday and don't plan to until at least next year. I still think this is farcical though. Sometimes it feels the government haven't learned anything over the last year.

I should have checked first sorry

"The government said the decision to move Portugal to the amber list followed an "almost doubling" in the country’s Covid-19 test positivity rate and the discovery of 68 cases of the Delta variant including some with a mutation previously seen in Nepal.

Mr Shapps said: "One is the positivity rate which has nearly doubled since the last review in Portugal and the other is there's a sort of Nepal mutation of the [Delta] Indian variant which has been detected.

"We just don't know the potential for that to be a vaccine defeating mutation and simply don't want to take the risk as we come up to the 21 June and the review of the fourth stage of the unlock."

Afghanistan, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Trinidad and Tobago are to be moved to the red list"

The Delta variant! When did that emerge?

@Jaxhog Until today most of the papers were predicting that additional countries would be added to the green list.

@BG2015

What happened to giving holiday makers two weeks notice to get back?

Has that been quietly dropped?

That was never a policy. You book a holiday in the knowledge that quarantine status could change while you're away.

I don't think anyone should be booking a holiday abroad. Seeing family can be an exception but there is no need to fly somewhere.

@Mojoj

What was the point of getting vaccinated? A shitshow if ever I saw one. I want my life back. The variants are just going to keep on coming. Time to get on with it

Maybe the people that have covid in Portugal or returning from there are not vaccinated? It doesn't say. Bear in mind that many haven't been vaccinated yet and many don't want/believe in the vaccine then you really cannot blame the vaccine.

What was the point of getting vaccinated? A shitshow if ever I saw one

The shit show is the way in which wealthy countries have monopolised the vaccines being produced, to the extent that they are now looking at vaccinating children when half the worlds adult population haven't yet been vaccinated nor will they be for another couple of years.

Just because many here are lucky enough to have been vaccinated and therefore only likely to suffer mild illness, there are still plenty of people abroad that will have absolutely no protection from the virus you may now unknowingly be a carrier of!

@Mojoj

What was the point of getting vaccinated? A shitshow if ever I saw one. I want my life back. The variants are just going to keep on coming. Time to get on with it

My thoughts entirely. It’s not going away, and we need to live with it. The vaccine was held up as an end to all this type of thing. How long are we expected to live like this, with the constant threat of the rug being pulled?

it feels like we are fucking imprisoned in our homes

cant fly anywhere , go for a break in the UK - pay a huge rent for a basic holiday home and then look at the pages and pages on here of vitriol towards those who dared to have a break in a tourist spot.

go to the beach - same vitriol out pouring about the next wave, front pages of papers whipping up the lockdown frenzy!

@tedsletterofthelaw

My mother in law who lives there was due to fly over on Thursday. She hasn't seen her son or grandchildren for 18 months.

Luckily she's managed to change her flight to an earlier one so she can still come.

It's bloody ridiculous.

This isn't just you, many of us are in the same boat. I haven't seen my 91-year-old Mum in 19 months and we're both in the UK. (I'm visiting her this week)

But we're intelligent enough to realize that this is a crisis situation, so we're following the rules.

@June2021

The Delta variant! When did that emerge?

Delta variant is the Indian variant, but with a new name

What’s the new name all about?