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?

Because people are at breaking point and need a holiday. Just because you don't doesn't mean they can't.

Time to get back to normal.

High time we all just got on with things.

@NannyAndJohn

Well Christmas was already down the pan anyway.

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

You’ll be at home anyway not socialising @NannyAndJohn so does it really matter to you whether there is Xmas or not ?

I think it's great news that people can travel again without huge restrictions. If you don't fancy it yourself, you can stay at home. It's time to move on.

Been twice abroad this summer. So far haven’t tested positive on my way back. Only 1% of those that have travelled abroad have tested positive. So the 99% was safe. Shall we carry on banning or making it difficult for a market (remember people live from it )

Most of the people that I know that caught the virus was because their behaviour in the uk. Nothing to do with abroad

The wilfully blind leading the sighted wise.

Also if traveling is so bad and rest of countries are doing so well.. why can I travel to most European countries without any tests as a double vaccinated person?

Well it's a damn sight safer in Spain than the UK. Our numbers are very low and everyone still wears masks and respects each other space.

Variant of interest anyone?

That's my only concern, the travel itself is fairly innocuous, but because we have zero measures here other than riding on the vaccine, we could (snd only could) get into trouble very quickly if one of these variants crops up.

@EasterIssland

Also if traveling is so bad and rest of countries are doing so well.. why can I travel to most European countries without any tests as a double vaccinated person?

Which ones? I don't know of any letting in only fully vaccinated people coming in from the UK. But I only know about Italy, Spain and Greece.

I thought I'd just check cases numbers to see if the OP may have a point....

Cases per million people in last seven days, taken from Worldometers:

UK: 2,982
Greece: 1,512
Italy: 516
Spain: 472

@Poetrypatty The above figures surely show that your anxiety is entirely misplaced. It seems far more likely that someone would catch Covid in a pub at home than a bar abroad.

Arguably the more people that go abroad for a week, the more it might help bring Covid cases down!

@Geamhradh not everything is uk.
Eu has been opened for fully vaccinated Europeans (even those that have had the virus didn’t need to be vaccinated) and they’ve been able to travel around europe all summer without tests in and out.
My Spanish friends have been traveling around europe this summer without the need of tests … can’t see the numbers of european countries have suddenly gone up because of it

Btw to Spain you can travel as a fully vaccinated person without a test from the uk

The real question you should be asking is why is Europe letting us in. We are a greater risk to them then they are to us.

@SpringRainbow

The real question you should be asking is why is Europe letting us in. We are a greater risk to them then they are to us.

Are we really? They’ve delta already so not sure what risk British people are going to bring that they won’t have already locally. It’d be a risk if we had a variant they didn’t have , then they’d close us the borders like they’ve had in the past

@NannyAndJohn

Well Christmas was already down the pan anyway.

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

Being an old fat man, maybe Santa should just get a vaccine to protect himself rather than relying on the rest of us restricting our lives indefinitely?

[quote EasterIssland]@Geamhradh not everything is uk.
Eu has been opened for fully vaccinated Europeans (even those that have had the virus didn’t need to be vaccinated) and they’ve been able to travel around europe all summer without tests in and out.
My Spanish friends have been traveling around europe this summer without the need of tests … can’t see the numbers of european countries have suddenly gone up because of it

Btw to Spain you can travel as a fully vaccinated person without a test from the uk[/quote]
I'm not in the UK. That's the point I'm making. Too many people are thinking they can travel FROM the UK to other countries with no further regulations being imposed which is simply not true.

This is correct, I work in travel, most other nations have rules on arrival, and things you need to do... even Spain has distinct rules in some cities around masks/social distancing.

It won't be the free for all they're used to here.

@EasterIssland, re -entering Spain. True, but you need a neg test before leaving still even if fully vaccinated (as with most, if not all EU countries, hence the "what happens if I test positive before leaving the hotel" posts on here. I believe that's what's being dropped in October, but as I said, I'm in the EU not the UK.

@Geamhradh yeah the test back to the uk is what is being dropped off for fully vaccinated.

Europeans if fully vaccinated didn’t need tests to travel around europe this summer , my point is that if traveling was so bad we’d have seen Europe’s numbers going quite high up which hasn’t.

My eldest dd lives in Dubai and travels the world for her job 2-3 new countries every week. She caught covid last year, felt rough but was ok. She has had both vaccinations and hasn't caught it since. The testing is rigorous.

You have more chance catching Covid in the UK than abroad.

@NoSquirrels

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…

Since you don't need a test to return now holidays will look much more appealing!

this is good news for British holiday destinations. This summer lots of holiday makers had a shitty attitude of “we’re here to forget about covid”. Hopefully half term will be much nicer here if those folks who normally go abroad can do so again. And realistically - if you’ve had vaccinations / covid, why not ? Better to spread out than have everyone rammed in a few hotspots in uk. Either everywhere or nowhere.

I am currently in India, not on holiday but visiting my elderly mum for the first time in 18 months.. Here are the tests I have done or may be asked to do ( I am fully vaxxed) :
PCR 72 hrs before flying
PCR in airport upon landing just 8 hrs later
Quarantine for 10 days
Test on Day 8
PCR 48 hrs before returning
Day 2 test ( though this may be scrapped?)

Oh, meanwhile DS went on the Tube and got Covid a month ago. So yes, I am inclined to agree that you re just as likely to get Covid in the UK as in any foreign country, and perhaps more likely.

I intend to book as soon as DD's passport come back. Did have a trip to Florida booked but it was cancelled last month.

Most places have lower cases than us.

I'm fully vax, as is Dh and 19y Dd. I've already had Covid.

To be fair the U.K. are probably a bigger risk to other countries than us coming home from there is.

@Whoopsmahoot

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.

Except that only a small percentage of the texts have actually been used to test for variants over the summer apparently. Everyone is paying more as were told they are doing this but the report I read in the bbc news app yesterday quoted a very low number actually doing the variant testing.