International travel and COVID

[Fambo Number Mive]

The new rule that people must have a negative test before they arrive in the UK (which doesn't prevent them getting COVID while travelling or between the up to 72 hours taking the test and travelling) will now apply from next Monday, not this Friday, as people needed time "to prepare".

Problems with testing availability and capacity mean some countries will initially be exempt.

For instance, the requirement will not apply to travellers from St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda until 04:00 GMT on 21 January.

Travellers from Falkland Islands, Ascension Islands and St Helena are exempted permanently.

Hauliers are exempt to allow the free flow of freight, as are air, international rail and maritime crew.

The government has said all forms of PCR test will be accepted, as will other forms of test with "97% specificity, 80% sensitivity"....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55656589

I'm not in favour of restricting international travel outside of a pandemic, but during a pandemic I don't think it's being xenophobic to want to close the borders like New Zealand (hardly a bigoted country) did. Yet the same government that has a very xenophobic attitude about the rest of Europe seems very unwilling to restrict international travel, probably because most people travelling are very wealthy.

[jobotic]

Can't people of "high value" be let off? Ah go on.

I don't suppose many Brazilians from favellas will be travelling over anyway.

[SpiderChrist]

I have managed to upset several relatives and workmates by describing their holidays abroad back in the summer as "selfish idiocy". "It must be OK to go on holiday abroad because the government say it is" is the argument I had thrown back at me.

[MojoJojo]

I'm not in favour of restricting international travel outside of a pandemic, but during a pandemic I don't think it's being xenophobic to want to close the borders like New Zealand (hardly a bigoted country) did. Yet the same government that has a very xenophobic attitude about the rest of Europe seems very unwilling to restrict international travel, probably because most people travelling are very wealthy.

It made sense for NZ as they managed to do t before the virus got into NZ. Now, someone coming from outside of the country is probably less likely to have it than the people already here.

(obv. depends on where from, and yeah variants. But overall I'm not particularly bothered, don't think it makes much difference either way)

[evilcommiedictator]

If you fly on Singapore Airlines you need to produce a negative test regardless of where you come from

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

How many more years of pandemic to go before people (and governments) realize that a negative test is essentially meaningless in this context?

[Chedney Honks]

We're Covid secure!

[poo]

Air travel destroying us

[Bazooka]

I've been trying to get back into China since December 15th 2019, look to them as a shining beacon of keeping people the fuck out.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Wrong thread cunt

[bgmnts]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dame-irene-hays-of-hays-travel-were-an-island-nation-of-explorers-people-cant-wait-to-travel-again-fshfftskh

We're an island nation of explorers apparently. Travelling is in our blood*.


*if you're part of the middle class with enough time and money to be able to jaunt off to wherever the fuck you want and learn love life or whatever bollocks.

[Fambo Number Mive]

The PM says the closure of air travel corridors from 04:00 on Monday will apply across the UK.

This will initially happen for a month, although it will be kept under review and could be extended.

Anyone arriving in the UK must quarantine for 10 days or they have the choice of doing an extra test on day five to shorten the isolation.

Why isn't it a 14 day quarantine and how well will it be enforced? We aren't enforcing the rules properly as it is.

I'm assuming we'll see a rush of people flying on Saturday and Sunday to beat the Monday deadline, increasing the risk of superspreading in the airports over the weekend.

[bgmnts]

Stunned by the U-Turn to be honest. I wasn't expecting this, i really wasn't.

Feel for the people who will get their long stay Caribbean trips disrupted.

[flotemysost]

if you're part of the middle class with enough time and money to be able to jaunt off to wherever the fuck you want and learn love life or whatever bollocks.

And to be able to comfortably work from home for the quarantine period afterwards, don't forget that one.

I mean I realise I'm very lucky to be able to work remotely at the moment, but to see the fact that you can get paid while isolating as a fast track ticket to holibob o'clock (and not, you know, a necessary measure because we're in a pandemic) seems pretty fucked up. Absolute cunts jetting off to Dubai and Mexico just before Christmas.

And they're always the ones with big houses/spare rooms etc. (hence "comfortably" working from home - definitely not the case for everyone who works remotely, I know, and not everyone who works from home can necessarily afford holidays either).

Why isn't it a 14 day quarantine and how well will it be enforced? We aren't enforcing the rules properly as it is.

I imagine it's in line with the revised isolation rules for anyone who tests positive in the UK, that's been reduced to 10 days.

Dangling the carrot of a 5 day quarantine if you get a negative test at that point seems a bit bizarre. Test results can take up to a few days to come back anyway so it might not even make that much difference to someone who's aching to get out, and it seems like there's fairly high risk of false negatives (e.g. if you caught it on the plane coming back, etc.).

[Fambo Number Mive]

Good point, I forgot they reduced the isolation period to 10 days.

Wondering if international sports should be on hold until the summer to avoid having to fly lots of sports people around the world which could help spread the virus. 47 tennis players currently isolating ahead after COVID cases on flights to the Australian Open.

[Bazooka]

Japan must be smoking da whacky baccy if they think the rest of the world won't be dead before the Olympics.

[Pinball]

IMO this won't be 'over' (whatever that means) until end-2021 earliest. No way it's over by the Summer. And that's assuming no vaccine-resistant Covid mutations take over the world.

[stonkers]

.

[Chedney Honks]

I hope the next mutation is like the side effect of KROKODIL 😂😂😂

[Icehaven]

Japan must be smoking da whacky baccy if they think the rest of the world won't be dead before the Olympics.

I can't believe it's still intended to go ahead. I'd have thought once it became apparent the pandemic wasn't going to be gone by this year they'd have given up again. Money though innit.

[Blinder Data]

dunno why they didn't just close the borders to all but essential travel and test new arrivals since the start tbh. why didn't they? big business and airports lobbying against? government too crap? or are they just not bothered really?

in new Zealand you have to pay about 1500 dollars to be quarantined in a special hotel. that's how you do it, not some piece of paper and a stern warning from the guy at customs to stay at home.

[Bazooka]

I hope the next mutation is like the side effect of KROKODIL 😂😂😂

Only the Spice Zombiez will survive and roam the scorched earth.

[Ferris]

.
I'm assuming we'll see a rush of people flying on Saturday and Sunday to beat the Monday deadline, increasing the risk of superspreading in the airports over the weekend.

*ferris banal opinion, disregard*

This seems to be a bizarrely British (English?) response. Every time restrictions come in like "bars are closing as of midnight tonight", the Canadian response I see is "oh right I'll stay in". The UK response I get via WhatsApp or whatever seems to be "wahey one last mad night at the pub before lockdown eh spirit of the blitz we'll meet again cheers hur hur" which negates the point of the entire thing because there's been a night of revelry which dooms the lockdown to failure.

No idea how true that is in general, but that is my experience for what that's worth (nowt).

The American response seems to involve waving the constitution around and threatening people with firearms before ignoring the legislation entirely but that's a different story.

*ferris banal opinion ended, go in peace*

[Pinball]

And that's why the US and UK are utterly, utterly fucked.

[Icehaven]

*ferris banal opinion, disregard*

This seems to be a bizarrely British (English?) response. Every time restrictions come in like "bars are closing as of midnight tonight", the Canadian response I see is "oh right I'll stay in". The UK response I get via WhatsApp or whatever seems to be "wahey one last mad night at the pub before lockdown eh spirit of the blitz we'll meet again cheers hur hur" which negates the point of the entire thing because there's been a night of revelry which dooms the lockdown to failure.

No idea how true that is in general, but that is my experience for what that's worth (nowt).

Yeah I'm not sure overall either but anecdotally on the last night before the pubs closed in the first lockdown we had 2 friends (both of whom have underlying health conditions) asking us to go to the local for a last hurrah. We declined, but apparently it was heaving so we were in the minority. Didn't help that it was a Friday night either, I mean it'd still have probably been busier than normal on any night but on a Friday or Saturday wild horses weren't going to keep people out of the pub, particularly when they knew they weren't going to be able to go again for god knows how long. I think it's as well they didn't know it was going to be 5 months or it'd probably have been even worse.

[bgmnts]

I mean here we are:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/meet-over-50s-planning-2021-holidays-taiwan-costa-rica-thanks/

When did we start marketing holibobs as travelling?

[jamiefairlie]

*ferris banal opinion, disregard*

This seems to be a bizarrely British (English?) response. Every time restrictions come in like "bars are closing as of midnight tonight", the Canadian response I see is "oh right I'll stay in". The UK response I get via WhatsApp or whatever seems to be "wahey one last mad night at the pub before lockdown eh spirit of the blitz we'll meet again cheers hur hur" which negates the point of the entire thing because there's been a night of revelry which dooms the lockdown to failure.

No idea how true that is in general, but that is my experience for what that's worth (nowt).

The American response seems to involve waving the constitution around and threatening people with firearms before ignoring the legislation entirely but that's a different story.

*ferris banal opinion ended, go in peace*

The UK has a significant alcohol dependency problem which is so normalised that you can only see it from the outside.

[Fambo Number Mive]

T2 Heathrow Friday afternoon. No ventilation. Long delays. Superspreading

https://twitter.com/PeterWestmacott/status/1352658172037787649

[Pinball]

Sometimes you wonder if people deserve to catch the plague and die. Dumb.

[El Unicornio, mang]

The UK has a significant alcohol dependency problem which is so normalised that you can only see it from the outside.

Yeah, I think I realised this after living abroad for years. Started to notice when I would get my early morning flights back to the US from Newcastle airport, seeing the packed groups of people standing around drinking pints, carrying rounds to and fro like it was a Wetherspoons on a Saturday night. Went to Poland in 2019 and the plane was full of drunk British people yelling and screaming at each other throughout the flight and barely able to stand/walk in a straight line when we arrived.