Details of Government Travel Traffic Light System published

[downsmead]

2 minutes ago, tring said:

 

You are correct, but I do not believe it is the case for all ships.  Some older ships may not have the space and for the very big ones I suspect it would be a nightmare trying to manage lab facilities and process enough if test everyone so the cost of setting it up may not go with the pile em high sell em cheap mentality.

You would be surprised just how little space a biological safety cabinet and a set of PCR machines takes up! It all depends on how the cruise companies view the issue. For example transatlantic crossings could not take place as a test needs to be within 72 hours. This would impact the very popular sailings from Southampton to the Caribbean. As you say, it will most likely boil down to finances, but the revenue lost from that one sailing will more than equip and staff a lab across a number of ships.

[Son of Anarchy]

8 minutes ago, tring said:

 

The problems with the lateral flow tests is the tests themselves are less accurate, quite apart from any technique differences and they are particularly bad regards false negatives, since they only pick up a positive if the viral load is fairly high.  I have had three PCR tests (never done the lateral flow), two for research and the third for a hospital procedure, and two  out of three were self administered.

When lat flow tests were first brought in, there were certainly media reports that the tests were less accurate than PCR.

 

However, since early March, care homes are using lat flow tests to test visitors.  If they are accurate enough to determine entry into an environment of particularly vulnerable (to Covid 19) people, then surely they must be accurate enough for travel tests?  Not all people in care homes have been vaccinated.

[Son of Anarchy]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Isn't the government meant to be sending us kits that would allow us to test ourselves twice a week?

Could these tests not be used at least for leaving the UK? 

Got our test kit this morning.  You have to order them via gov.uk

[tring]

2 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

When lat flow tests were first brought in, there were certainly media reports that the tests were less accurate than PCR.

 

However, since early March, care homes are using lat flow tests to test visitors.  If they are accurate enough to determine entry into an environment of particularly vulnerable (to Covid 19) people, then surely they must be accurate enough for travel tests?  Not all people in care homes have been vaccinated.

 

I have seen it said that although they are less accurate, the fact they will still pick up high virus loads means that people who are most likely to infect others are picked up, though if the fear is more along the lines of other strains of the virus coming into the country, I feel there will be different thoughts.

 

With care homes most residents and staff have been vaccinated and I thought it was still necessary for PPE to be used, so not really comparable to someone coming into the country and just heading off to be at liberty to mix in the community. 

[yorkshirephil]

Manufacturers say they are accurate, people that don't/won't use them say they aren't accurate, C'est La Vie.

[terrierjohn]

15 hours ago, wowzz said:

It's basically just a fudge. 

From a cruising point of view it is worse than useless.

You go on a cruise that visits countries in the red, amber and green locations, but you do not get off at any port. What is your situation when you get back to the UK? Quarantine or not?

 And how will tests (and the actual type of  tests are yet to be determined) be administered and  examined, when a ship is travelling for three or four days prior to arrival back in the UK?

These are difficult times, but this traffic light system is an absolute dog's breakfast  

Dog's breakfasts might well be messy, but if you don't feed them they end up eating your furniture. So for your analogy with holiday testing and travel, it might well lead to some confusion, but will probably be far better than the alternative.

[wowzz]

8 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Dog's breakfasts might well be messy, but if you don't feed them they end up eating your furniture. So for your analogy with holiday testing and travel, it might well lead to some confusion, but will probably be far better than the alternative.

Yes, for some reason I got my canine meals confused! 

[Presto2]

6 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

It's been said that it can be difficult for to do these tests properly and could end up with false readings. So maybe best for them to be done by a professional if using the results for travel.

Avril

 

I'd think that Public Health would say that the negative result of a LFT is not an all clear but a 'proceed with caution'. Many people test negative on a LFT and then test positive on the PCR test. Also, the test is only as good as the person administering it and anyone who has done one knows that it is no the easiest thing to get spot on.

 

Sorry to be doom and gloom but worry that people have symptoms, take a LFT and think they are ok when they really should then have a PCR to check. It gives a false sense of security.

 

 

[Presto2]

5 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

When lat flow tests were first brought in, there were certainly media reports that the tests were less accurate than PCR.

 

However, since early March, care homes are using lat flow tests to test visitors.  If they are accurate enough to determine entry into an environment of particularly vulnerable (to Covid 19) people, then surely they must be accurate enough for travel tests?  Not all people in care homes have been vaccinated.

 

Am guessing that it is 50 / 50 - they do show up some but not all and, like I said, I worry that they give a false sense of security. 

 

Sorry I would want everyone to have had a PCR test - a bit extreme perhaps, but just me

[Snow Hill]

2 hours ago, Presto2 said:

 

Am guessing that it is 50 / 50 - they do show up some but not all and, like I said, I worry that they give a false sense of security. 

 

Sorry I would want everyone to have had a PCR test - a bit extreme perhaps, but just me

It would appear that is what the Government want for those returning from holiday overseas, to get a PCR test done in the country they have holidayed in at least 2 days before they return. How this will be done has not yet been said, but indications are that airlines & holiday companies will be asked to organise. How it works for cruises and independent travellers hasn’t been thought out yet. The document is clearly incomplete at this stage and it will be at least a week or more before we hear anymore given the government news blackout during the 8 days of mourning. 

[tring]

33 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

It would appear that is what the Government want for those returning from holiday overseas, to get a PCR test done in the country they have holidayed in at least 2 days before they return. How this will be done has not yet been said, but indications are that airlines & holiday companies will be asked to organise. How it works for cruises and independent travellers hasn’t been thought out yet. The document is clearly incomplete at this stage and it will be at least a week or more before we hear anymore given the government news blackout during the 8 days of mourning. 

 

I think they may also want PCR tests on arrival to ensure accuracy and to allow any positive tests to be sequenced to allow them to keep a tab of any troublesome variants coming into the country, which is after all what it is all about.

 

Are we really to expect 8 days of mourning?  I am happy for respect to be shown and was thinking yesterday there would have certainly been more discussion of the travel news and possibly a briefing as well, had more important news not turned up.  We did expect a couple of days of focused news and a number of documentaries to be broadcast, but are we being naive, or were you just making an off the cuff comment (and I can see why)?

 

I have just received an email from my Canadian SIL and even she said:-

 

For the past two days , the BBC has done nothing else (hardly) except talk about Prince Phillip and the Queen.  We switched to the American channels to get some news. Now that is different!

[Snow Hill]

18 minutes ago, tring said:

 

I think they may also want PCR tests on arrival to ensure accuracy and to allow any positive tests to be sequenced to allow them to keep a tab of any troublesome variants coming into the country, which is after all what it is all about.

 

Are we really to expect 8 days of mourning?  I am happy for respect to be shown and was thinking yesterday there would have certainly been more discussion of the travel news and possibly a briefing as well, had more important news not turned up.  We did expect a couple of days of focused news and a number of documentaries to be broadcast, but are we being naive, or were you just making an off the cuff comment (and I can see why)?

 

I have just received an email from my Canadian SIL and even she said:-

 

For the past two days , the BBC has done nothing else (hardly) except talk about Prince Phillip and the Queen.  We switched to the American channels to get some news. Now that is different!

Saw this online earlier today from a journalist 

 

“Government is to more or less enter a media blackout during the period of mourning for Prince Philip - no Covid press conferences, no press releases other than for essential public health reasons, no ministers on media interviews, including the usual political shows this Sunday.”

[terrierjohn]

4 hours ago, Presto2 said:

 

Am guessing that it is 50 / 50 - they do show up some but not all and, like I said, I worry that they give a false sense of security. 

 

Sorry I would want everyone to have had a PCR test - a bit extreme perhaps, but just me

On most PCR tests you need to take the swabs yourself, which having done one would seem to be very likely to produce lots of false negatives as people chicken out of taking them correctly.

I realise this would also apply to LFT tests, but my guess is that poor swabbing is more likely to give a false negative with either method.

[wowzz]

13 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

Saw this online earlier today from a journalist 

 

“Government is to more or less enter a media blackout during the period of mourning for Prince Philip - no Covid press conferences, no press releases other than for essential public health reasons, no ministers on media interviews, including the usual political shows this Sunday.”

Which is just stupid. 

I happen to think that Phiilp was a good "bloke " and needs to be remembered,  but this black out nonsense is insane. 

I hate to think what will happen  when the Queen dies. 

 

[terrierjohn]

Just now, wowzz said:

Which is just stupid. 

I happen to think that Phiilp was a good "bloke " and needs to be remembered,  but this black out nonsense is insane. 

I hate to think what will happen  when the Queen dies. 

 

Have you been on the wine again wowzz? 😉😇

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Have you been on the wine again wowzz? 😉😇

Actually, no.

But why, last night, did the BBC need to devote both their mainstream channels to showing the same programme ?

Surely, devoting one channel to the PoE would be sufficient?

[terrierjohn]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Actually, no.

But why, last night, did the BBC need to devote both their mainstream channels to showing the same programme ?

Surely, devoting one channel to the PoE would be sufficient?

You would need to ask the BBC that one, but these things rarely affect us, we always record everything we want to watch and view it later.  Sport and the news are about the only things we watch live nowadays.

[wowzz]

1 minute ago, terrierjohn said:

You would need to ask the BBC that one, but these things rarely affect us, we always record everything we want to watch and view it later.  Sport and the news are about the only things we watch live nowadays.

Same as us, really. And thank goodness for Netflix. 

Interesting that the BBC had to set up a web site to allow all those that wanted to complain about their coverage of Phillip's death. I think that they have misjudged the mood of the nation. Respect, certainly, but not a total news blackout.

[Snow Hill]

15 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Actually, no.

But why, last night, did the BBC need to devote both their mainstream channels to showing the same programme ?

Surely, devoting one channel to the PoE would be sufficient?

I didn’t watch any of the BBC output yesterday, watched the Masters late afternoon, Wolves Fulham in the evening and then the Masters before I went to bed. My wife watched Netflix, whilst I was watching football on upstairs TV, then rejoined me for the golf. 
 

If you want to know what will happen when the Queen dies read this, it’s from 2017, but essentially is what will happen, a few of the political figures have changed

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/16/what-happens-when-queen-elizabeth-dies-london-bridge

 

 

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

I didn’t watch any of the BBC output yesterday, watched the Masters late afternoon, Wolves Fulham in the evening and then the Masters before I went to bed. My wife watched Netflix, whilst I was watching football on upstairs TV, then rejoined me for the golf. 
 

If you want to know what will happen when the Queen dies read this, it’s from 2017, but essentially is what will happen, a few of the political figures have changed

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/16/what-happens-when-queen-elizabeth-dies-london-bridge

 

 

Thanks for that. 

We watched a couple of episodes of Spiral (we are only on series 4) and my knowledge of French swesr words is improving all the time, followed by an old episode of DiP, for a bit of sunshine.

Apart from sport, we never watch "live" TV anymore. 

[tring]

1 hour ago, Snow Hill said:

Saw this online earlier today from a journalist 

 

“Government is to more or less enter a media blackout during the period of mourning for Prince Philip - no Covid press conferences, no press releases other than for essential public health reasons, no ministers on media interviews, including the usual political shows this Sunday.”

 

I totally agree with Wowzz, that is absolutely ridiculous!  I can understand a day or two, but for no government news to be put out at all in that time is going much too far, especially when there are things that have been promised like the news on holidays which has been very long awaited.  It does not need endless politicians speaking at every opportunity and certainly does not need the drip feed of bits and bobs for a number of days before, but the basic information could and should be given.  There should also be some sort of update regards how the covid situation is doing.  

 

Bah.

[davecttr]

9 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

Saw this online earlier today from a journalist 

 

“Government is to more or less enter a media blackout during the period of mourning for Prince Philip - no Covid press conferences, no press releases other than for essential public health reasons, no ministers on media interviews, including the usual political shows this Sunday.”

How convenient for them (sarcasm)

[Adawn47]

9 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

You would need to ask the BBC that one, but these things rarely affect us, we always record everything we want to watch and view it later.  Sport and the news are about the only things we watch live nowadays.

We record and watch later so we can skip the annoying adverts😊

Avril

[Dermotsgirl]

The trouble is, we don’t know what is normal for when a Prince Consort to a reigning Queen dies, as the last time it happened was in 1861.

 

But it does seem incongruous that the government has gone quiet in the middle of a global pandemic and everything else that is going on.

 

As for TV, I’m not particularly bothered as there are always things to watch on Netflix, or I read or do puzzles.

 

However, if Line of Duty isn’t shown tonight, I will kick off, big time! 

 

[Adawn47]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

Same as us, really. And thank goodness for Netflix. 

Interesting that the BBC had to set up a web site to allow all those that wanted to complain about their coverage of Phillip's death. I think that they have misjudged the mood of the nation. Respect, certainly, but not a total news blackout.

The Queen is from a different generation, and that's how things were done when her father died.

Avril