Covid test before returning to UK

[Windsurfboy]

A do it yourself test is not accepted . The ship will sort it out if on a cruise, if not

 

But what i read in paper ,It can be accepted if done under virtual supervision,  some companies give you a test, when it's time to do it, you video call them they watch you do it and direct you then to put it solution and then 4 drops in test. They then check the result over video call and email you a certificate. 

 

Or you could arrange one abroad. Seems many towns in Portugal have drop in testing centres or for example get one at airport.  All need pre-booking .

[Windsurfboy]

I think soon , UK will be "forced" by public opinion to follow Europe and exempt fully vaccinated pele from tests in green countries. Fingers crossed. 

[zap99]

17 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

Booked 3 in UK , one Portugal but not till September,  everything fully refundable,  if cancelled more than 4 days in advance. But cruises next year are one FCC , one new money

For us, 2 in the UK, one Spain in September and a staycation cruise. All financially secure and refundable. One new money cruise for 2022 and one with money that was refunded from last year and the year before. The world is a big place🤣

[FamilyCruiserUK]

The whole uk gov traffic light system is rubbish, or should i say once again half assed. I would like to see the following and these are my views only.

 

Red countries: essential trip only. PCR test 72hrs before flight and return. 14 days mandated isolation in hotel.

 

Amber countries: semi essential trips. Not holidays. PCR test before flight and return. Mandated home isolation untill PCR test negative, taken on day 2.

 

Green countries: vaccinated people no test to travel. Unvaccinated , must have LFT to travel. On return all to take a LFT, at airport, If positive then usual UK PCR test and isolation.

 

Again these are my views only

Edited May 20, 2021 by FamilyCruiserUK

[Pink-belle]

38 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

The whole uk gov traffic light system is rubbish, or should i say once again half assed. I would like to see the following and these are my views only.

 

Red countries: essential trip only. PCR test 72hrs before flight and return. 14 days mandated isolation in hotel.

 

Amber countries: semi essential trips. Not holidays. PCR test before flight and return. Mandated home isolation untill PCR test negative, taken on day 2.

 

Green countries: vaccinated people no test to travel. Unvaccinated , must have LFT to travel. On return all to take a LFT, at airport, If positive then usual UK PCR test and isolation.

 

Again these are my views only

My opinion is different

 

Red countries No travel

 

Amber countries essential trips only, we need to get the world moving in a controlled way.  Essential work trips would not include You Tubers on Free holidays!  And essential compassionate trips. I agree with your testing suggestion.

 

Green Countries vaccinated LFT to fly out, could be the NHS test they would like us to do twice a week anyway.  LFT at airport on return.

Unvaccinated should require PCR for any travel imho, at least until more of the world is vaccinated.

 

If I’m honest I would quite happily see no Green Countries, and essential travel only, if it meant we could freely move about the UK, with no restrictions.

[Windsurfboy]

We have two issues where clarity is needed

 

Firstly what are the rules for putting countries on red , Amber, green. These should be spelt out clearly,  not fudged over. Especially the vague "fear of new variants ". 

 

The primary factor should be the level of cases in a country. 

 

The variants of concern, each variant should be classified as to the knowledge we have of how well the vaccines protect people from hospital admission, and death.

If the vaccine protects against a variant,  it should not be a factor. There should be an open " library ", of all the evidence. For example  Qatar, which has now vaccinated  50% of people using Pfizer has found it protects at a 97% against the South African Variant. Evidence is building around world that all the vaccines seem to protect against all the variants they come up against. Only doubt about a vaccine have been with Chinese vaccine in Chile (note only vaccine in wide use not on WHO approved list)

 

If a country has a dominant  variant that vaccines are not shown to work on , or has extremely high levels of covid, then on Red list  , Emergency travel only , hotel quarantine. 

 

If a country has moderately  high level of Covid but with variants the vaccine works on Amber, self isolation

 

If a country has a low level of Covid similiar to UK (and is not letting people in from red countries without hotel quarantine ) , then it's no more dangerous than a holiday in UK . Green list , NO testing. You can visit Bolton without testing on return , but not Algarve 

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Windsurfboy
Spelling

[MX-Drew]

I believe we need to guard ourselves against all and any variant because, in my opinion, about the worst thing that can happen is a mutation of a variant. This is more likely to be resistant to the vaccine as it is moving further away from the baseline. 

[wowzz]

45 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

If a country has a low level of Covid similiar to UK (and is not letting people in from red countries without hotel quarantine ) , then it's no more dangerous than a holiday in UK . Green list , NO testing. You can visit Bolton without testing on return , but not Algarve

Well said - the current guidelines are entirely irrational.  It's safer in Spain than in Bolton!

[wowzz]

33 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

I believe we need to guard ourselves against all and any variant because, in my opinion, about the worst thing that can happen is a mutation of a variant. This is more likely to be resistant to the vaccine as it is moving further away from the baseline. 

In which case you basically need to stop people moving around the UK. No more UK holidays, because people travelling from areas where the Indian variant is prevalent could spread it.  

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

The whole uk gov traffic light system is rubbish, or should i say once again half assed. I would like to see the following and these are my views only.

 

Red countries: essential trip only. PCR test 72hrs before flight and return. 14 days mandated isolation in hotel.

 

Amber countries: semi essential trips. Not holidays. PCR test before flight and return. Mandated home isolation untill PCR test negative, taken on day 2.

 

Green countries: vaccinated people no test to travel. Unvaccinated , must have LFT to travel. On return all to take a LFT, at airport, If positive then usual UK PCR test and isolation.

 

Again these are my views only

I thought this sounded very much as Boris described it in PMQs yesterday.

[Dermotsgirl]

1 hour ago, MX-Drew said:

I believe we need to guard ourselves against all and any variant because, in my opinion, about the worst thing that can happen is a mutation of a variant. This is more likely to be resistant to the vaccine as it is moving further away from the baseline. 

I completely agree.

 

The more that infection is allowed to spread, the greater the chance the virus has to mutate, and the last thing we want is for it to mutate into something even more transmissible and / or vaccine resistant.
 

Therefore, we need to keep infection rates low. 

[MX-Drew]

32 minutes ago, wowzz said:

In which case you basically need to stop people moving around the UK. No more UK holidays, because people travelling from areas where the Indian variant is prevalent could spread it.  

First step is to stop variants coming into the country then stop people moving from areas that do have a variant. This is why areas like Bolton may end up in a lockdown.

[zap99]

1 hour ago, MX-Drew said:

I believe we need to guard ourselves against all and any variant because, in my opinion, about the worst thing that can happen is a mutation of a variant. This is more likely to be resistant to the vaccine as it is moving further away from the baseline. 

Stay at home until the virus has stopped mutating, or accept what the scientists are saying. The vaccine works.

 

Red. Don't go. If you do, don't come back.

Amber. If you are vaccinated and go, take care.

Green. If vaccinated come and go freely.

[MX-Drew]

31 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Stay at home until the virus has stopped mutating, or accept what the scientists are saying. The vaccine works.

 

Red. Don't go. If you do, don't come back.

Amber. If you are vaccinated and go, take care.

Green. If vaccinated come and go freely.

I did not mean that, I meant stop people going to and coming from countries with variants and high levels of infections. 

As for the lockdown for Bolton, that was in the News yesterday.

[zap99]

18 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

I did not mean that, I meant stop people going to and coming from countries with variants and high levels of infections. 

As for the lockdown for Bolton, that was in the News yesterday.

That's what I meant. I would be more concerned at the moment about going to Bolton than I would for many Amber list countries. We are off to Cornwall tomorrow, we will social distance and wear our masks, as we will when we go to Spain in September. As far as I am concerned, a red light means stop. Amber is caution.

[MX-Drew]

15 minutes ago, zap99 said:

That's what I meant. I would be more concerned at the moment about going to Bolton than I would for many Amber list countries. We are off to Cornwall tomorrow, we will social distance and wear our masks, as we will when we go to Spain in September. As far as I am concerned, a red light means stop. Amber is caution.

Agreed.

Have a good time in Cornwall.

[Dermotsgirl]

27 minutes ago, zap99 said:

That's what I meant. I would be more concerned at the moment about going to Bolton than I would for many Amber list countries. We are off to Cornwall tomorrow, we will social distance and wear our masks, as we will when we go to Spain in September. As far as I am concerned, a red light means stop. Amber is caution.

Aren't they saying that people shouldn't go on holiday to amber countries? 

[Windsurfboy]

The balance of evidence so far is that the vaccines have provided protection against every variant thrown at them. Clearly more evidence needs to be collected to be certain. But the time must come soon when we trust the vaccines.

 

I certainly have more trust in the vaccines than in the scaremongers,  who have predicted waves when schools opened up, another when shops opened,  and now an even worse one with the Indian variant. Though they seem to be backtracking already.

 

Although the EU has said it will exempt vaccinated people from testing,  the UK government has said it won't treat unvaccinated people differently  at least untill everyone has been offered the Vaccination.  Looking at it from (healthy) young people's point of view they have endured restrictions to protect us oldies from a disease that is of no danger to them. To restrict them whilst letting us go abroad unhindered seems unfair.

 

I cannot see how visiting a country with an equal or lower rate of Covid than UK can be any more dangerous than a holiday in the UK,  so why should it have more restrictions and costs

 

 

[yorkshirephil]

8 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Aren't they saying that people shouldn't go on holiday to amber countries? 

No, some are advising against it, at the mo you would have to isolate when you come back. It is difficult to keep track as it is all a moveable feast. Some travel companies are refusing to refund people who are booked to go to some amber countries but don't want to risk it.

[Dermotsgirl]

14 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

No, some are advising against it, at the mo you would have to isolate when you come back. It is difficult to keep track as it is all a moveable feast. Some travel companies are refusing to refund people who are booked to go to some amber countries but don't want to risk it.

I thought that Hancock was clear about it yesterday, that amber countries were not for holidays, only for 'exceptional circumstances' 

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I thought that Hancock was clear about it yesterday, that amber countries were not for holidays, only for 'exceptional circumstances' 

Indeed, but as Phil said, if you cancel your holiday to an amber country, the holiday company will not refund you, because travel is not actually banned.

Let's face it, the entire situation is a total mess, with government ministers contradicting themselves from day  to day.

.

[MX-Drew]

31 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

The balance of evidence so far is that the vaccines have provided protection against every variant thrown at them.

This may be the case but what about the next variant that may come along?

As far as I know there has been no statement to say the vaccine will work against future variants.

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

This may be the case but what about the next variant that may come along?

As far as I know there has been no statement to say the vaccine will work against future variants.

But we can't constantly live in a state of fear because of a yet unknown threat. 

[zap99]

10 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I thought that Hancock was clear about it yesterday, that amber countries were not for holidays, only for 'exceptional circumstances' 

And today Grant Shapp said something else.

[zap99]

5 minutes ago, wowzz said:

But we can't constantly live in a state of fear because of a yet unknown threat. 

It seems that some will. As our next ' out if country ' holiday is Britannia in August , followed by Menorca in September we fully expect the ' guidance ' to change several times by then. Language seems to be changing, almost daily.

Edited May 20, 2021 by zap99