What happens if you catch covid while on holiday abroad?

[LastToBePicked]

We’re toying with the idea of going abroad (Renting a house in Italy) but the worry about what happens if you catch covid while you are away is putting me off.

Has this happened to anyone? What do you do if you can’t return home? Where do you stay?

Check with destination country rules and regulations. Google is your friend here.

A lot of the time you have isolate before you travel back. So you could have to isolate in Italy for 10/14 days before return.

I was just reading up on the same subject as we are in Gozo at the moment with our tests due in a couple of hours. Apparently here you have to isolate for 14 days before returning.

what I think is more worrying is that you have to fly with a negative test

In the UK you can't get a PCR for 90 days after having a positive one as they can continue so show positive for a long time after you're infectious/recovered. I don't think it's especially likely be possible therefore that you could be in Italy (or wherever) beyond their isolation period.

A girl in my daughter's class at school is still on holiday in Morocco because her Mum tested positive on the pre-flight test, so they're just... staying. I guess they'll come home after the isolation period has finished, assuming the Mum is fully recovered.

This is the reason I have no plans to travel anywhere for the foreseeable. It's not a matter of just "staying". You've got to find somewhere to stay, potentially whilst feeling really quite ill. You won't be able to stay where you are, the next guests will be expected.

Unless there is an easy way?

I though you had to go to a Covid hotel? Unless you are in your own accommodations.

Obviously if you have decent travel insurance which covers this scenario that is enormously helpful. But doesn't really help if you are due back at work/school

You isolate in a hotel in the country you are in. Some countries pay for this, others don’t do make sure you have insurance.

You can travel home on a lateral flow test so the still testing positive for 90 days on a PCR test is a red herring.

I don’t think you get to just stay in your nice hotel. The countries are pretty strict about putting you in a quarantine hotel. Well Greece and Spain anyway.

@Delatron

I though you had to go to a Covid hotel? Unless you are in your own accommodations.

depends where you are. In spain I believe you are shipped off to one yes. But whichever test you take to get on the plane back to the UK doesn't necessarily feed into the national 'system'. So this might not be enforceable.

@Aposterhasnoname

You isolate in a hotel in the country you are in. Some countries pay for this, others don’t do make sure you have insurance.

You can travel home on a lateral flow test so the still testing positive for 90 days on a PCR test is a red herring.

you can't get lateral flow tests in many places. Though you can i think take some (not the free ones) with you from the UK.

What about other members of your party? Can they return home?

It depends whether you declare you have Covid I guess. So a test by a doctor and I guess they’d report it?

LFT in a hotel done by yourself. No. You could keep it quiet I guess.

you can't get lateral flow tests in many places. Though you can i think take some (not the free ones) with you from the UK.

Yup, we took some with us, we also took a couple of the free ones and did those first so we knew we were negative before we did the “proper” ones.

We did the same. Took the NHS tests to check we were negative then did official ones.

@Delatron

It depends whether you declare you have Covid I guess. So a test by a doctor and I guess they’d report it?

LFT in a hotel done by yourself. No. You could keep it quiet I guess.

And thus risking infecting an entire planeload of fellow passengers.

This is why I won't be travelling abroad any time soon.

I'd be more worried about getting seriously ill and ending up in hospital unable to speak the language.

I would email the hotel you are planning on staying at and ask them what would happen. I believe that in Spain you are escorted to a quarantine hotel where you cannot leave your room until your 10/14 days are up. Food will be delivered to your room but it won't be food of your choice.

This is why we aren't going abroad, two weeks stuck in a hotel room with two kids under 5 not my idea of fun especially if there's no air con. Also I'd be devastated if I tested positive and couldn't fly home but DP and kids could because they are negative.

@SaturdaySpread

This is the reason I have no plans to travel anywhere for the foreseeable. It's not a matter of just "staying". You've got to find somewhere to stay, potentially whilst feeling really quite ill. You won't be able to stay where you are, the next guests will be expected.

Unless there is an easy way?

It’s exactly this I’m worried about - it’s where do you stay? You’re in a rented house for a week and then you have to test so you can take a flight home and it’s positive. Where do you go?

I spoke to a friend about this yesterday - he's quite high up at a well known travel company. In some countries you get sent to a covid hotel, you have to stay in your room, you get food but it can be shit, and you may also have to pay £thousands for the privilege.

Personally it puts me off going anywhere.

You definitely DON'T just get another week in your lovely rented house....

We have just come back from Lanzarote. We took antigen tests with us from a private company and just did them a few days before we came home. It was always in the back of my mind what would happen if it was positive but it worked out ok. It is a risk though!

Someone in our hotel had taken a load of nhs ones and was almost obsessively testing himself. He said that if one of them had come back positive, he was just going to rent a villa for a fortnight and isolate there. He wasn’t best pleased when I asked him how he would get enough shopping for two weeks without putting other people at risk. Thankfully he was negative!

@Delatron

It depends whether you declare you have Covid I guess. So a test by a doctor and I guess they’d report it?

LFT in a hotel done by yourself. No. You could keep it quiet I guess.

Yep. People use Chronomics and their "upload a screenshot" service for the return LFTs for this very reason.

Think about it, you give someone the option of either spending potentially thousands of pounds, as well a potential stay in a hotel prison abroad, the hassle of school, lost work, medicines etc....or you could just rig the test with water or something and come home as normal.....sample size of 100 people...I'd say you'd be lucky to get 10 honest answers!

This isn't me condoning anything, and goodness me I was lucky enough not to be met with that choice on the times I've gone away this summer, but you asked what happens when you test positive abroad and...well...I'd suggest it's probably something like the above in a lot of cases!

This is vaguely on my mind as I’m going on holiday soon and am v pregnant. The airline will let me fly to 36 weeks and my flight home is 35+4. I’ll be like a teenager praying for no second line

@MiddleParking

This is vaguely on my mind as I’m going on holiday soon and am v pregnant. The airline will let me fly to 36 weeks and my flight home is 35+4. I’ll be like a teenager praying for no second line

Oh god that sounds too stressful!!!

I know someone who was positive on holiday, just got their friend to take the pre flight test and flew home. Hence why I would not be getting on a flight anytime soon.