Will you visit the UK this summer? (covid)

[Taiyo]

I'm British, but I live in my husband's home country with our 2 young kids.

I haven't been back to the UK since covid started as this country has strict hotel quarantine on return, which I'm just not prepared to do with 2 young kids.

It's now been lifted, so we can do quarantine at home, so I should be ready and happy to go to the UK, but I'm just so worried about the covid situation in the UK at the moment and the airports closing.

A lot of people say omicron is just like a slight cold, but my mum says quite a few people have told her that they were really quite sick with it and obviously some people are still dying (my parents are high-risk).

I just wonder if anyone else is hesitating to travel to the UK for similar reasons?

Also, I know there is a covid section and I wondered about posting there but I really wanted to hear what people who live abroad think as I think people in the UK maybe have a different perspective on things.

@maddy68 yet my family went to europe for 11 days and caught it out there and brought it back
Have you seen the numbers in many parts of europe not just the uk

The airports aren't closed just some airlines who are short staffed cancelling flights , some schools are shut as easter hols , although not where I am yet they break up tomorrow, but none have been closed recently
Hospitals are busy and suffering with staff absence
Dh has covid now hoping rest if us don't get as 2 of us had in jan , and one last oct but neither time dh picked it up but got it from somewhere now

I think it depends on what country you are living in at the moment

I've booked to go to the UK for the summer. Its been nearly 4 years since I last went and I just can't wait any longer. I'm fully vaccinated, oldest child is vaccinated (youngest is too young still) and we're staying with my parents who are fully vaccinated too so I feel like its as safe as it can be really.
Just hope the airport issues aren't still going on then!

We went back at Xmas and was glad we saw family.
But it was pretty stressful as if we caught it in the UK we would be stuck there for weeks.
We didn't go anywhere indoors until we had our clear PCR test for flying home.

More of my family now have COVID than they did then but hopefully by summer things will be better.

*This just isn't true. Think about it rationally - if the population of Scotland was infected every 2 days then there would be no one without the virus in less than 2 weeks.

The official data say an estimated 4.9 million covid cases in the UK. That's 1 in 13 people are infected.

www.bbc.com/news/uk-51768274

I think the number of Covid cases in the UK is dropping now isn't it?

I'm going to the UK this summer and actually I think the timing is pretty good. The UK will be in a lull, and I'll be escaping the US for a month while we hit our BA.2 peak.

Schools are closed because of the Easter holidays.

Airports are mayhem because of staffing issues.

We will just try and reduce chances of catching covid where possible.
Still wear mask at airport and on plane even if not compulsory, aim to meet people outside or cafes outside if possible, mask on public transport/ walk if possible.

Life goes on

I’m not particularly worried about catching covid health wise. Dh and I both triple vaccinated, toddler not but I don’t think high risk. It’s more I will have 101 things to do on return work wise and we still have 10 day home quarantine if positive which would be a tad annoying.

Anyway, with the testing regime being wound back, our Covid levels will look much more like, say, Germany's, or other countries with much lower per capita testing. So the knee jerk 'levels in the UK are so much higher, let's pop them on a red list!' approaches will have less data to base it on.

We will be, for the first time in 3 years. We've all had covid now, as have our UK family, so no drama there. Now our country allows entry from uk with inky testing no quarantine, it's tome to go back. 3 years is a long time.

Ugh sorry for typos.

Only testing
Time to go back

The official data say an estimated 4.9 million covid cases in the UK. That's 1 in 13 people are infected.

We’re talking at cross purposes. I thought when you said ‘people infected the other day’ you meant they had been infected that day.

@ZZTopGuitarSolo

I think the number of Covid cases in the UK is dropping now isn't it?

I'm going to the UK this summer and actually I think the timing is pretty good. The UK will be in a lull, and I'll be escaping the US for a month while we hit our BA.2 peak.

I think they may have dipped in the last few days, but I guess cases will rise after the Easter holidays with so many people travelling.

We’re talking at cross purposes. I thought when you said ‘people infected the other day’ you meant they had been infected that day.

Sorry for the misunderstanding!

The school local to where my parents live had a lot of issues with staff shortages due to covid just before the easter holidays and ended up closing half the school. I don't think this is unusual.

Sorry for the misunderstanding!

Misunderstanding on both our parts - apologies!

I'm going back at Easter. I was going at Christmas but cancelled last minute as you still needed a PCR to get back in to the country where I live. I'm very glad I cancelled as several of my colleagues got it and got stuck. Now I don't have to test either way, I am going as long as nothing changes

After years of priding myself in booking cheap fars months in advance,, I'm leaving booking til the last minute if I can't get fully refundable/changeable flights

@JassyRadlett

Anyway, with the testing regime being wound back, our Covid levels will look much more like, say, Germany's, or other countries with much lower per capita testing. So the knee jerk 'levels in the UK are so much higher, let's pop them on a red list!' approaches will have less data to base it on.

Yes, this. Surely with no PCRs and very few lateral flows being recorded, by summer there will hardly be any 'official' cases?

Not likely because of quarantines on my end. DD's daycare has a mandatory 5 day quarantine and negative test requirement if you fly anywhere .

I live abroad and have been going back to the UK regularly since flights resumed in June last year. I even managed to get vaccinated in the UK, on top of my home country vaccination.

But I have a home available in the UK, and what I find is that I can go out and about but never really come close enough to anyone for any length of time to actually catch it (so far...). But I don't go out pubbing and clubbing...

Yep, I'm flying back for 4 days next month. Haven't been since before covid.

We've been back twice and I was also very apprehensive ( nearly cancelled the night before) as we live in a place that has strict rules and Covid Passports. UK seems to have none, I was so scared about going & catching it but once I got there & relaxed a bit and finally got to see my family I was so happy I went. We tested nearly every day too, as did everyone we were meeting, they knew we were worried about being stuck there in if we got infected.
We went at Christmas when things were really bad there and a month ago when cases were on the up, and also there's no indoor mask wearing, unlike at Christmas. I managed not get Covid, nor my husband and as far as I know we've never had it before. We continued to use our masks in closed spaces as if we were in our own country and avoided mass crowds. The biggest challenge was flying back where hundreds of British tourists were maskless and maybe not vaccinated, we used an FFp2 mask in the airport and they were mandatory on the plane to come home. I would say do it. It's getting warmer now too, so easier to say outside.

Airport wise we got there three hours in advance and bought fast track security passes, but it was very busy. Fast Track took around 90 minutes.

I totally understand your concerns, @Taiyo.

I haven't been back to the UK since before covid due to strict entry requirements where I live. I knew quite a few people who travelled and quarantined at great expense last summer, mostly without serious problems. Financially it was a no-go for us, but even if we could afford it I couldn't face 2 weeks in a hotel room with my children We've done it twice now at home and that was bad enough!

Over Christmas loads of my friends and neighbours went to the UK. Schools here even extended the holidays to accommodate this, as so many people had not returned to their home countries for a while and they wanted to give people long enough to make the trip. Requirements here had eased, so it was just testing and no quarantine unless positive.

Almost every family/person I know had problems. I can only think of 1 who had a visit not ruined by covid while in the UK, didn't get stuck there, and didn't have to quarantine here due to testing positive on arrival. It was a nightmare for most people. The lucky ones simply had their time in the UK ruined by isolating due to catching covid themselves, and therefore not being able to see all the people they'd planned to.

The unlucky ones either got stuck in the UK for several weeks due to testing positive when trying to leave, and having to wait til a PCR test ran negative (this can take some time after you actually have covid). This meant more weeks of missed school for their kids, and parents trying to work online with a massive time difference. Plus the expense of staying longer than planned.

Others made it back here only to test positive on arrival and be forced into either hotel or hospital quarantine (varying degrees of comfort/food etc!)

Some of these people say it was worth it and they will travel again this summer. Others say they won't until the restrictions allow home quarantine even for those who test positive on arrival (technically possible now, but depends who you know I think!)

I'm not considering it this summer, partly down to finances and partly down to the fear of one of us testing positive and then being sent to a hotel/hospital. Early on during covid, it was not unheard of for children to be separated from parents and although they say that doesn't happen anymore, it's not really a risk I'm going to take.

I was lucky that my mother came to visit over Christmas. I'll take that for now!

It sounds terrible but actually the longer we haven't visited for (nearly 4 years now as we didn't go the year before covid), the easier it has become.

We’re heading home to UK in July for the first time since 2019. Parents are getting older and unable to travel to see us, children growing up not really knowing grandparents and cousins. We feel it is time to take the plunge. With the lack of testing regime in the UK it seems that there’s a real chance of catching covid and never knowing it and just assuming it’s regular cold if the symptoms remain mild. Combined with no need for PCR to return to our host country, I would be looking to avoid testing at all, unless one of us falls really ill. The main worry is passing it onto the elderly relatives but we plan to meet outdoors and will wear masks, sanitize hands and be as careful as we can.

We're in the UK at the moment. Most things seem to have gone back to "normal" here. It's odd for me seeing people at the supermarket without masks. I still wear my FFP2 mask, partly because I've got a slight cold (tests come back negative). But I'm a teacher and it's the Easter holidays. I was bound to get a cold.
DH and I are triple vaccinated, DS5 has been fully vaccinated since January. So far, we've all managed to escape Covid, despite having a lot of potential exposure. (Two KS1 teachers and one child in school.)
We had to change our bookings from Christmas at really short notice and Easter was the next possible option. So, we won't come back in the summer holidays but we are expecting family and friends to finally visit us in our new home. We moved abroad just before Covid.

We live Europe and went back to the U.K. in February 2022, first time since 2020. We are booked to go for 2.5 weeks in summer.

we had originally booked for Christmas 2021, but everything had gone a bit mad at that point and we would have been required to test before and after each flight: with sky high infection rates, the prospect of getting a positive test was too risky so we cancelled and went in Feb instead. By that point there were no tests required anywhere as we are all vaccinated.

for me, it hinges on the testing requirements and implications of testing positive at any point in the journey. Not getting Covid per se - DS1 and I have both had it and we are all vaccinated. It’s the knock on effects of a positive test in our party that put me off - delaying our return home, having to stay on with older relatives, missing school / work, etc.

if pré / post flight testing is reinstated, it would make me think twice about going in summer tbh.