Everyone taking foreign holidays in October half term is surely a recipe for disaster?

[Poetrypatty]

Can't see why the newspapers are pushing it and the change in policy about the tests, because to my mind if loads of people travel in October returning without tests for the half term lead up to Christmas, surely there's less chance of a normal Christmas?

It's time to crack on with things.

Boring

Why when they are probably visiting countries with lower case rates than us?

Where I live we haven’t needed a test all summer if double vaccinated - and over 12s were vaccinated in June/July so many families holidayed without tests.

It has not affected the number of cases. The incidence is steadily low, has increased slightly at times due to school reopenings and some small regional outbreaks but nothing related to travel.

Travel isn’t a recipe for disaster. The lack of any protective measures on one’s home soil could be.

The positivity rate for someone arriving back in the UK is less than 1%. Do you test yourself when you travel domestically to covid hotspots?

Well if the vaccines are as efficient as advertised it shouldn’t be a problem.

People going abroad at half term will likely be looking for sun. So mainly spending time outside, including eating. And in countries where rates are lower than ours.

Whereas those staying in the UK, which currently has far higher number of cases than the usual holiday destinations, will likely be mixing indoors with other families, flocking to indoor shopping malls/cinemas/bowling alleys etc. So not sure how it will be the fault of those going abroad if we see a spike?

The bigger risk is getting stuck abroad if you’ve had a positive result before you can get back.

I don’t think October half-term holidays will ruin Christmas. Round by us it feels like we’d be lucky to get to half-term without catching Covid first anyway…

Is that you Sage modeller?

I'm glad we bought our flight tickets last week when they were super cheap.

Don't most other places have lower rated than us anyway so probably less riskier than going to Cornwall in many instances

@Poetrypatty

Can't see why the newspapers are pushing it and the change in policy about the tests, because to my mind if loads of people travel in October returning without tests for the half term lead up to Christmas, surely there's less chance of a normal Christmas?

Id rather have a week in a place I like than a day that is pure spending

@Hairbrush123

The positivity rate for someone arriving back in the UK is less than 1%. Do you test yourself when you travel domestically to covid hotspots?

Or go to the pub Or on the public transport Or visit family Or so many things we do in the uk that have caused the current scenario

Your logic is stranded back in February 2020 when we had few cases (at least we believed we did) and going to Covid "hotspots" risked introducing cases into an otherwise largely Covid free country!

Covid is more widespread here than in most holiday destinations, so any returning traveller is probably less likely to have Covid than the average Briton!

It seems bizarre to me that you still, after all
this time, believe that holiday destinations are fetid Covid hotspots that risk contaminating the barely blemished U.K.

Good God we have one of the highest incidence of infection in Europe atm dont we? It's hard to see how international travel will make things worse.

Well Christmas was already down the pan anyway.

But this is certainly one way to stick the nail into Santa's coffin.

To be honest we are worse off that most of Europe anyway in regards to high cases. U.K. travellers are more risky than vice versus yet countries still want or need the tourism . I’ve just come back from Edinburgh where cases are high. Probably more likely to catch it there then some resorts abroad.

I’m quite careful with covid and haven’t been abroad but it’s obvious it hasn’t sent us in a huge spike of cases over summer. By october booster jabs should be happening for those more vulnerable. It will have already spread around schools/uni for a few weeks anyway.

So what’s your solution? COVID is everywhere and always will be. For the vast majority of people it poses no risk to life. For young, healthy people they have a higher chance of being killed in road accidents than dying of COVID. Sure, there are people at high risk but those are people whose health is already very fragile or who have other risk factors such as obesity. We can’t stop the majority from living because of the few. This obsession with the belief that banning all activity will stop people from dying is ridiculous.

Probably much less likely to get it than from families all piling into the shopping centres as they do.

@NoSquirrels
If you're double vaccinated you wont need a test to get back into the UK from the 4th

@NannyAndJohn

Well Christmas was already down the pan anyway.

But this is certainly one way to stick the nail into Santa's coffin.

Good grief, such drama. Santa doesn’t even exist so he’s safe from Covid.

@RoseWineTime

Why when they are probably visiting countries with lower case rates than us?

Exactly They could also spread Covid to the countries. Thankfully, many other countries will insist on British travellers following the restrictions still in place almost everywhere to a certain degree, so that risk will be mitigated somewhat.

I think it may come as a bit of a shock to some people though once they step off that plane and realise that. I'm part of a travel FB group which is full of people who think they only need to look at the (lack of) regulations for travel from the UK (from the UK govt) then get to Greece or wherever and are surprised that they have to follow the Greek govt rules!

Travelling won’t make it that worse- not PCR testing on return will- they are a warning system for new variants coming in. And yes I do believe we need to get back to real life but we also need a bit of common sense too.

[quote Snakeplisskensmum]@NoSquirrels
If you're double vaccinated you wont need a test to get back into the UK from the 4th[/quote]
Except many countries won't let you on a plane their side without a negative test result!
If an Italian person (for example) has to produce a negative test before getting on a plane out of Italy, then do you think the Italian authorities are going to wave the Brits through?

It's great that travel is opening up, truly, I can't bloody wait to get on a plane, but people do need to take into account the rules of the other country they're visiting. Thankfully, as the vaccination programme is now at least on a par (I believe Portugal is now top of the list for % of people vaccinated) more countries will drop more travel regulations, but it remains to be seen.

So you really think other countries are swimming on Covid. Check the data and come back to explain why are you more likely to get Covid abroad?