Track and traced or symptoms whilst on holiday

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We are still massively conflicted about whether to go on pour one week holiday to Spain on 8 August.

One thing I can never seem to get an answer to is what happens if you either get a track and trace whilst on holiday or, hopefully not, someone develops symptoms? Under either circumstance here , you would stay put for 2 weeks... so how does that work if you have a few days of a villa holiday to go?

Where do you go? How the hell do you get home??

I really ahev no idea why I can't find an answer to this!

This is why there’s a degree of risk in going away at the moment.

I wondered this. If DD gets a call from T&T when she's on glamping trip... is she supposed to come straight home - how, since she doesn't have independent transport. Or when she's in France, is she supposed to stay in villa for extra 14 days? Who would actually do those actions?

Yeah, I know pinecone : just haven't seen any sort of practical stuff about what actually happens.

We are set to lose £3000 by not going...

If your insurance doesn’t cover you then you have to foot the bill for the extra nights accommodation, change of flights home and any hospital bills.

There are policies that now cover you for this though. Trailfinders definitely has one.

Yeah, I can get the policy from Insure and Go which covers stuff like accommodation and medical expenses (not sure about flight, unless that's repatriation?). So, you can change your flight etc easily?

Not that I want to!

I wondered if you had to go to a special quarantine hotel too. It'd be a bloody nightmare!

Check the terms of the insurance policy carefully. For anything that’s not covered, you are on your own basically. There’s also the possibility that you get locked down in the place you are staying if there is an outbreak there.

If in Europe, your EHIC card would cover you for the same hospital treatment as the locals.

We're going to stay in a self-catering property in France rather than on a campsite as we often would,.in case of a local lockdown.

You could end up there for weeks. You won’t be allowed on a flight home with a temperature. I assume that would also apply for track and trace? It’s a scary prospect!

Yes it is, which is why I can't understand why so many are gung ho about going on their already booked holidays!

I think I did read that they aren't taking temperatures in airports any more.

I get terrible travel anxiety these days which means I feel sick and don't sleep. This always raises my temperature!

Not sure about Spain but in Greece they're testing on arrival, and if you or anyone on your flight tests positive, you stand up to spending two weeks in government provided accomodation.
We've rebooked for next year.

Gosh, that is scary! Presumably only the people with a certain zone on the flight though? Even so, scary. I don't think they are testing on arrival in Spain.

Surely, it would be so much more efficient to test before departure for flights out??

FCO just advises "if anyone on your flight tests positive".
We've swapped the hotel and flights for no extra charge a time all.
Nervous times.

We are driving and using Eurotunnel, so no risk of being infected by anyone and having to quarantine.

5 years ago I had suspected appendicitis on a family holiday in Menorca and ended up spending three nights out of a seven night holiday in a (very nice and clean admittedly) Spanish hospital, I didn’t and don’t speak a word of Spanish. It was miserable. It was all covered by insurance and EHIC bar the initial €100 excess so there was no financial stress or anxiety. I was very well looked after, but even so I have zero desire to repeat the experience. We cancelled our French holiday this year, I suffer terribly from anxiety, and COVID isn’t helping (understatement of the year!) so I just couldn’t cope with the idea of potentially repeating my international hospital experience!

Not sure about Spain but in Greece they're testing on arrival,

I landed in Alicante at midnight. No testing there on arrival.

We have just arrived in Menorca, temperature was checked on departure from Manchester and also arrival here.

CP* that wrily amuses me as a teacher! We have been told that everyone in a so called bubble (which would be a flight in these situations) only needs to self isolate with 2 positive tests in 14 days (and not the teacher...) but a whole flight for one person? Why bother with seat numbers then??

I did read cabin crew are not included so they must feel a bit like teachers do about that.

It does seem the Spanish aren't being very consistent in airports. I am flying into Malaga, if anyone knows what that one does.

We weren't able to move or change our holiday.

what,I hear you. I lost a week of a holiday in Turkey lying in a hospital bed with suspected legionnaires!

This may or may not come true, but it is a reminder that quarantine can be (re)imposed at no notice

metro.co.uk/2020/07/22/brits-may-have-quarantine-return-spain-sure-coronavirus-cases-13020943/

And may of course be imposed at destination countries.

It is also likely to be excluded from travel insurance, for policies taken out out after the start of the pandemic, or holidays booked after the start (in the case of aunnual policies). So check before you travel.

If you are required to isolate by T&T who get hold of you abroad, the right and responsible thing would be to isolate as if you were at home. Or at least rearrange your travel - going to Europe by Eurostar is a completely different scale of infection risk to being in a limited space with others (even with a really good mask) for some hours

I think you mean eurotunnel?

In theory if you get covid on holiday you are supposed to stay put and self-isolate for 14 days. Exactly where will depend on rules in your location - often its where you are but can be in a government approved facility. In practice I would imagine a lot of people with symptoms won't do this due to costs involved (insurance may or may not cover this - depends on terms, we have InsureandGo and the policy has lots of holes in and they keep changing terms - we are pulling out of our Asia holiday, also not allowed in but think InsureandGo will pay out nothing as FCO says fine to travel. InsureandGo won't refund if you are offered a change of dates, a credit note, internal flights even if you can't use those, we will lose £1.6k by cancelling though some of that will get credit notes for which if there's a vaccine and companies don't go bankrupt we can use).

Flights maybe doing temp checks, in theory Spain is checking everyone as they land according to FCO but reality is often a lot of people get through unchecked. Not sure if someone tests positive on flight who is quarantined - Iceland guidance says there its only people who test positive plus person either side. Think its about 1 in 3,000 with it here atm so on 2 flights probably one person will have it but you would have to be sitting next to them.

Re EHIC we've had it refused in Spain, just been told not public hospitals around so wouldn't rely on that. Check if there is a public hospital there and also make sure your insurance covers covid - read the full terms and conditions not the sales pitch. On eof the papers is reporting a family who refused to self-isolate after testing positive in Spain and they've been put under house arrest.

I think its quite a low chance you would get covid but it I would keep monitoring the situation. Some local lockdowns happening there now. Might be worth asking again on change of dates / refund, some we got on 3rd time of asking those ours were all direct. A lot of these places are close to bankruptcy / having to lay off lots of staff so its difficult for everyone. We are just going in UK now but our holiday was 100% not viable whereas yours is more borderline.

Different as we are not abroad but the cottage we have boned in U.K. says if you develop any symptoms you must travel home immediately and not stay in the cottage.

Abroad you would have to stay put. You can’t get on a plane with symptoms.

Thanks for all that detail koala!

Our travel operator have been awful, No answers to calls or emails. Switched off all social media. No renegotiation of dates. No sympathy for circumstances.

I suspect local lockdowns might make Spain close borders again.

Thanks for posting that link Winnie - we are due to go next Wed to Spain but are still really uncertain.

We're in Scotland so quarantine for returners from Spain has just been lifted (although I was really surprised that it was given the direction of the numbers). And NS said yesterday not to rely on the decision changing again.

We'd been sure we weren't going so it's now a bit of a dilemma. Does anyone know if UK change the status of Spain will that be via FCO advice, as if so then that would also apply to us regardless of Scot Gov rules on quarantine. In a way I'd be glad if they did as it takes the decision off our shoulders.

Will be watching Spanish numbers very closely for the next few days.