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Mandatory 14 day quarantine to be introduced in the UK from 08/06/2020

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SouthEastBuses

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A two-week quarantine period for anyone arriving in the UK will be enforced from 8 June, the government says.

The measures were being introduced to "keep the transmission rate down and prevent a devastating second wave,'' Home Secretary Priti Patel said on Friday.

Passengers arriving in the UK by plane, ferry or train - including UK nationals - will have to provide an address where they will remain for 14 days. There is a £100 penalty for anyone found to have not filled in this ''contact locator'' form.

Surprise visits will be used to check they are following the rules. Those in England could be fined up to £1,000 if they fail to self-isolate, while governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can also impose penalties....

A mandatory 14 day quarantine will be introduced in the UK from the 8th of June 2020, according to various news sources such as the BBC, The Guardian and The Independent.

According to which, unless you're a key worker, or coming from Ireland/Isle of Man/Channel Islands, you will need to self isolate at your address for 14 days. You should not be using public transport or taxis (to get to your address of isolation) if possible, and you should rely on your friends and other members of family for essentials, if possible.

I am wondering if this is an effective way of trying to prevent a second wave, and whether it will just be a temporary measure or not.

It would be great to hear everybody's opinion on this new 14 day quarantine law.
 
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A Challenge

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It will be highly damaging to holiday companies trying to get us to go on holiday as has been indicated we may be able to by maybe August or September
 

SouthEastBuses

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It will be highly damaging to holiday companies trying to get us to go on holiday as has been indicated we may be able to by maybe August or September

Indeed, and I agree with you that it isn't overall a good idea. To me, it should be used as a temporary measure, and only be mandatory to flights arriving from countries that currently have very high infection rates such as Brazil.
 

Bantamzen

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The words horse, bolted, stable door spring to mind. And given that we have been one of the worst affected countries, you have to ask what the hell is the point? Another knee jerk over-reaction from this government. It will certainly have to be temporary, it could kill international tourism and business off in this country in a single stroke, and it won't be effective because any second wave will come from this country anyway. Listening to some of the experts out there, it seems that some actually want people from area to area to be quarantined, let alone anyone from abroad. We could be sleepwalking our way into a Police state.
 

SouthEastBuses

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The words horse, bolted, stable door spring to mind. And given that we have been one of the worst affected countries, you have to ask what the hell is the point? Another knee jerk over-reaction from this government. It will certainly have to be temporary, it could kill international tourism and business off in this country in a single stroke, and it won't be effective because any second wave will come from this country anyway. Listening to some of the experts out there, it seems that some actually want people from area to area to be quarantined, let alone anyone from abroad. We could be sleepwalking our way into a Police state.

I fully agree with you! Mandatory 14 day quarentine is not going to work in the long term, because of what you rightly explained.
 

SouthEastBuses

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And plus, with all the new screening technologies that airports around the world are developing (example: Hong Kong), I think these will probably do the job effectively without a need of a 14 day quarantine.
 

scotrail158713

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It would be great to hear everybody's opinion on this new 14 day quarantine law.
Contrary to posts above this is one of the few things I believe the government have timed correctly. The number of cases is decreasing each day so by quarantining arrivals into the UK it should drastically reduce the potential for imported cases. This means tracking and tracing existing cases will be easier to do, and the virus is easier to control.
Why we didn’t do it from March I’m not sure, but trying to implement in the height of the peak of the virus would not have been sensible.
 

SouthEastBuses

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Contrary to posts above this is one of the few things I believe the government have timed correctly. The number of cases is decreasing each day so by quarantining arrivals into the UK it should drastically reduce the potential for imported cases. This means tracking and tracing existing cases will be easier to do, and the virus is easier to control.
Why we didn’t do it from March I’m not sure, but trying to implement in the height of the peak of the virus would not have been sensible.

You do have a good point there, and I did say that for me it should only be a temporary measure. And plus, I'd use mandatory 14 day quarantine only for flights arriving from countries such as Brazil, where the infection rate has been significantly increasing.
 

westv

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And plus, with all the new screening technologies that airports around the world are developing (example: Hong Kong), I think these will probably do the job effectively without a need of a 14 day quarantine.
The problem with those is that they are only effective if you have symptoms.
 

Tomp94

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So let me get this straight. My friend who is Portuguese and had/has plans to visit in mid June, does NOT have to self isolate for 2 weeks as he is a carer and therefore a key worker, but his mate who is going with him, will have to self isolate for 2 weeks as he is not a key worker. None of them drive and will be using the Train to get to and from the airport.

Surely everyone must self isolate, especially so key workers?

Doesn't make much sense to me.
 

Bantamzen

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Contrary to posts above this is one of the few things I believe the government have timed correctly. The number of cases is decreasing each day so by quarantining arrivals into the UK it should drastically reduce the potential for imported cases. This means tracking and tracing existing cases will be easier to do, and the virus is easier to control.
Why we didn’t do it from March I’m not sure, but trying to implement in the height of the peak of the virus would not have been sensible.

Except that in many countries the slowing of the viral spread is greater, so again what is the point of quarantining when coming from a country with a lower risk level? And then to make the daft even dafter, there will be exceptions.

So let me get this straight. My friend who is Portuguese and had/has plans to visit in mid June, does NOT have to self isolate for 2 weeks as he is a carer and therefore a key worker, but his mate who is going with him, will have to self isolate for 2 weeks as he is not a key worker. None of them drive and will be using the Train to get to and from the airport.

Surely everyone must self isolate, especially so key workers?

Doesn't make much sense to me.

UK government making sense? They've literally wibbled from one direction to another, all whilst ignoring their own rules. I have zero confidence in anything they do now.
 

ComUtoR

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And plus, with all the new screening technologies that airports around the world are developing (example: Hong Kong), I think these will probably do the job effectively without a need of a 14 day quarantine.

Those that are asymptomatic will pass by any screening. The need to isolate will catch those that ass screening and will serve to protect others and reduce the spread of the virus.
 

SouthEastBuses

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Except that in many countries the slowing of the viral spread is greater, so again what is the point of quarantining when coming from a country with a lower risk level? And then to make the daft even dafter, there will be exceptions.

Indeed. That's exactly why quarentine should be limited only to flights arriving from high risk areas.
 

A Challenge

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So let me get this straight. My friend who is Portuguese and had/has plans to visit in mid June, does NOT have to self isolate for 2 weeks as he is a carer and therefore a key worker, but his mate who is going with him, will have to self isolate for 2 weeks as he is not a key worker. None of them drive and will be using the Train to get to and from the airport.
I'd assumed it meant UK residents re-entering the country who are key workers in the UK?
 

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Surely everyone must self isolate, especially so key workers?
Even worse, the original proposals as discussed yesterday seem to imply that it is only those in the health and care workers, as well as vehicle operators such as lorry drivers in the course of making a work journey that would be exempt, and not all key workers.

So basically a key worker such as a checkout operator or railway worker who has been working hard out of home for the past few months can’t go and enjoy a holiday (pending decisions made by foreign governments), yet someone who isn’t doing a key job can go away because they can work from home.
 

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Even worse, the original proposals as discussed yesterday seem to imply that it is only those in the health and care workers, as well as vehicle operators such as lorry drivers in the course of making a work journey that would be exempt, and not all key workers.

So basically a key worker such as a checkout operator or railway worker who has been working hard out of home for the past few months can’t go and enjoy a holiday (pending decisions made by foreign governments), yet someone who isn’t doing a key job can go away because they can work from home.

It is not intended for anyone to be going on a foreign holiday, and perhaps that should explicitly be banned.

The idea of the exemptions are twofold:
1. To allow people to enter as a necessary part of their course of employment
2. To allow people to enter to take up or return to forms of employment critical to the country where we typically cannot resource them domestically

That's all. Even lorries I think are questionable; a return could be made to just shipping trailers, with UK domestic based drivers collecting them from the ports. And I definitely don't think weekly commuting should be exempted - this is a time when other arrangements are needed.
 

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Those that are asymptomatic will pass by any screening. The need to isolate will catch those that pass screening and will serve to protect others and reduce the spread of the virus.
Some territories are doing swab tests on all arriving persons, rather than just undertaking temperature checks which as you say will not flag anyone up who is asymptomatic.
 

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Some territories are doing swab tests on all arriving persons, rather than just undertaking temperature checks which as you say will not flag anyone up who is asymptomatic.

The problem with swab tests is that you aren't certain to have built up enough virus until the incubation period is complete, which is a week or so. So if you caught it on the flight, you'd probably pass.

Testing could be used as a means of releasing early, though, perhaps. For instance you could be allowed to release at 7 days provided you have a negative test which you have paid for yourself.
 
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........it should be used as a temporary measure, and only be mandatory to flights arriving from countries that currently have very high infection rates such as Brazil.
.....I'd use mandatory 14 day quarantine only for flights arriving from countries such as Brazil, where the infection rate has been significantly increasing.
Indeed. That's exactly why quarentine should be limited only to flights arriving from high risk areas.

That wouldn't be effective at all.
People travel via different routes, not just on direct flights.

For example, at the beginning of the pandemic, Italy suspended flights arriving from China.
However, many people arriving back in Italy from China, were travelling via the Gulf hubs (Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Muscat), or other major hubs such as Singapore, Istanbul, London, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Frankfurt etc, etc.

It's not so easy to identify this, as there's another complication in that some people routing via a third (or third and forth) country, may not be making the journey in one go, on a through ticket.
They may be stopping over, for a day or two, either for business, or leisure reasons. Possibly on separate tickets.
It would be quite time consuming to ascertain and confirm where people have come from, especially if they're not readily forthcoming, or are evasive when questioned by border control.


 

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Is there any particular reason for the rule coming into force in two weeks rather than, well, sooner?
 

Crossover

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To give people a bit of notice to get back now before it does, and possibly because that will tally with cases being low enough to be worth doing it?

Possibly. Problem is they were going on about the same thing a couple or so weeks prior to now as well (when there were going to be exemptions for various countries and when it may not have applied to boats/trains/swimming*) - notwithstanding that as a general rule, everyone should have been in their home place for the last few weeks anyway. It seems like lip service and watering down the benefit of doing it at all

*may be a little facetious :p
 

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Probably also add - it only really has any purpose alongside track/trace, as if you've got cases springing up all over the place without that you can't control them anyway, so importing a few more makes no difference.

So that might be an indication of track/trace being properly ready by then?
 

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A forum member wrote a blog post about this subject, which is interesting:
I’m very concerned that the impact of this on the UK travel industry hasn’t been thought through. As I note above, the details aren’t yet clear, but (enforcement of the restrictions aside – the Independent article linked in the above Tweet talks more about the problems there so I won’t repeat these here) there are a couple of issues that immediately jump out at me as problematic based on the information we have so far...
There's lots more in the blog, which can be read in full by clicking the link above, but just to pick one aspect out of it, an interesting alternative is mentioned:
A far more sensible system ... would, in my view, be to have a system similar to Japan but using the plethora of empty hotels around the UK’s airports. All arriving passengers would take a Coronavirus test as a condition of entry, they would then stay in an airport hotel (at their own expense) whilst the test is processed, and if the test was found negative they would be permitted entry....
 

Bletchleyite

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That doesn't work, because a test is not reliable until several days into infection - it needs to incubate first - someone who caught the disease on that flight would probably test negative.

What might work, but would still be disruptive and awkward, would be that you test everyone on a given flight on arrival, and if even one person on that flight tests positive everyone is quarantined in a Government facility for say 5 days, and then retested, then anyone who tests negative is then released. Complex, though.

Simpler might be to say it's 14 days, or can be reduced to 5 days if you test negative on the 5th day at your own cost. I'd probably consider going on holiday abroad, then. 14 days of no outdoor physical activity (doing burpees in the garden doesn't count) is too much for me.
 

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Even lorries I think are questionable; a return could be made to just shipping trailers, with UK domestic based drivers collecting them from the ports.
Not within weeks or probably months. There isn't the infrastructure (eg UK truck drivers) to switch quickly.
 

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I’d suggest that the U.K. quarantine plan is noting more than another political diversionary tactic.

The fact is that U.K. nationals, and those departing from the U.K. are going to be some of the last to be permitted into very many other nations, unless they have residency there.

Why on earth would countries that have weathered the storm, many far more successfully than the U.K., actively risk importing infection again?

The notion of ‘air bridges’ is pure fantasy with regard to the U.K., again probably designed to distract. Many countries are setting them up, but none with the U.K.

The U.K. quarantine plan therefore appears to me to be designed to make it look like it’s the U.K. Government being ‘strong’ and ‘taking back control’, in the hope that folks won’t spot that vast numbers of other countries simply won’t let us in.

France has already reversed the plan (if there ever really was one) to not impose quarantine inbound from the U.K., and Greece is back-pedalling hard on its suggestion that British travellers will be welcome soon.

Australia and New Zealand have semi-officially said that it’ll be October at the earliest before U.K. arrivals are permitted.

Italy might be open to us a little sooner, but it’d have to maintain land border controls to stop us bleeding elsewhere in the Schengen Zone.

There’s no scientific evidence to support quarantine in a highly affected area post-outbreak; the Police have said that they can’t enforce it; the airlines have obviously made it clear that it’ll delay the resumption of their operations to anything like a comprehensive flying programme and as long as the FCO advises against all but essential travel, most holiday insurance won’t provide cover when travelling abroad.

To add to the challenge, for all the notions of ‘staycations’, there is simply not the board, lodging, transport, parking and numerous other service provisions in the U.K. to support a stay at home summer.

The U.K.’s current tourist hotel provision is largely centred on major cities, not coast and country. Unless folks want a fortnight in London or Edinburgh, they’re likely to be bang out of luck.

There aren’t going to be twelve carriage summertime specials to excursion platforms at the big resorts. Whitby will probably still only have two carriage DMUs four times a day.

Many large hotels in coastal locations were long since demolished or turned into flats. Many that remain are aimed at a largely older market, often arriving by coach. They do not have spas and leisure clubs and kids’ entertainment, etc., etc.

Last time I looked, there were only two officially-rated five star hotels on the entire coastline of Great Britain.

Unfortunately, we are being perceived as the sick man of Europe and I think that we’re therefore likely to see even more daft and diversionary proclamations from the U.K. government as the summer goes on.
 

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Is there any particular reason for the rule coming into force in two weeks rather than, well, sooner?

I doubt the border people could be organised any quicker.
The immigration people, airlines and airports, and presumably quarantine police, will have to be briefed and trained, and some necessary IT set up and tested.

My perception is that they want a blanket quarantine rule to start with, to make sure everyone complies.
Then they will ease the quarantine rules bilaterally where states allow UK entry without quarantine (assuming the R rate is stable).
That's difficult with the EU who will insist on the same rule for all states (or at least for Schengen states).
France has kicked off by instituting a 14-day quarantine for UK arrivals - tit for tat.
It's very odd that the promised derogation (as for Ireland) was not agreed - that would have exempted Eurostar and ferries.
It feels like the Brexiteers' "hostile environment" to me.

The government behaves as though it's other countries which have higher infection rates and therefore pose a threat, whereas now it's mostly the reverse!

It was instructive seeing arrivals on TV at Manchester yesterday from a KLM flight, with no arrival checks and no social distancing on the "packed" flight.
At least they were wearing masks.
 
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Mogster

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Although the impact on the UK economy is disturbing there are signs that globally the CoV2 crisis isn’t over and while the disease is abating in Europe new global hotspots are developing. Central and S America, Russia, N and S Africa, China possibly still. This doesn’t seem to be being reported by the UK media much.

It looks probable that by July local transmission cases in the UK will be low, I can see that with the bashing they’ve been taking the last thing the government will want is a raft of imported cases possibly bringing new variants. Anyone that thinks global tourism is going to suddenly re-start is in dreamland I think, this is going to be especially damaging for heavily tourism dependent economies.
 
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