No entry to uk without proof of negative test.

tacpot12

Actually the government could have allowed everyone who was abroad when the pandemic hit to return (as the majority of travellers were going to anyway within the next month anyway), and then closed the borders to people without a negative test in April. If they had done this, and stopped anyone going abroad who didn't agree to have a negative test before they returned, we would have had a much easier time in June and July when the virus could have been eradicated from the UK as Taiwan did. Did you know that Taiwan has had just 8 deaths from Covid-19? (Their population is 23 million). This is because the government there listened to their chief scientific adviser and closed the borders more or less immediately. 

epm-84

JamoLew said:

brettcta said:

Better late than never but yes, it should’ve been in place early doors. As with most things throughout this pandemic, the government is unbelievably slow in acting.

i agree a blanket ban on ALL international travel back in March should have been done, but then people would have been complaining about missing their holiday

The government effectively banned all holidays for over 3 months last year after in March they said they advise against all non-essential international travel and that anyone abroad curtails their trip and returns home.  It wasn't until July when the government announced that for a limited number of destinations travel can resume (countries with a lower infection rate than the UK) and they didn't give any advance warning of that so very few people went on holiday for the first 6 weeks after that.

By autumn the situation was that some cities like Nottingham and Liverpool had infection rates 15 times higher than the infection rate in Greece.  How could the government justify testing those returning from Greece, when people were free to travel to cities like Nottingham and Liverpool without needing to get a test done?

It's a bit different now we know there's mutations spreading much faster and there's one in southern Africa, which is a different one to the one we have circulating everywhere.

clive0510

tacpot12 said:

Actually the government could have allowed everyone who was abroad when the pandemic hit to return (as the majority of travellers were going to anyway within the next month anyway), and then closed the borders to people without a negative test in April. If they had done this, and stopped anyone going abroad who didn't agree to have a negative test before they returned, we would have had a much easier time in June and July when the virus could have been eradicated from the UK as Taiwan did. Did you know that Taiwan has had just 8 deaths from Covid-19? (Their population is 23 million). This is because the government there listened to their chief scientific adviser and closed the borders more or less immediately. 

I agree. as soon as we knew the scale of this in march or april, the government should of shut the country to all and sundry, apart from people native to the uk returning home. 
and now I just heard on the news in parts of london, the infection could be 1 in 20. 

epm-84

tacpot12 said:

Actually the government could have allowed everyone who was abroad when the pandemic hit to return (as the majority of travellers were going to anyway within the next month anyway), and then closed the borders to people without a negative test in April. 

That could have caused issues.  Some British people got stuck in lockdowns in other countries so didn't return home until later, such as British nationals stuck in Spain, Italy, Greece etc. I'm also not sure private testing for those without symptoms was available in each of those countries at the time lockdowns were lifted, so that could have caused a major international law issue.  Telling British nationals to self-isolate on return is no problem, refusing entry or fining them for not being able to get a test wouldn't.

sheramber

A nd if they had closed the borders when would  they  open again?
As long as the virus exists elsewhere there will always be the possibility of it occurring again. That is what happened in New Zealand and Australia as soon as they allowed people in.

Thrugelmir

We are fortunate to have secured a good supply of the first vaccines. Many parts of the globe haven't. Nor are unlikely too for possibly years. There lies a long road ahead. 

Nebulous2

clive0510 said:

Its all too little too late. same as everything with this pandemic. the bus drivers, care home workers, nurses etc etc. all were working without sufficient ppe. I would of thought they would of been 1st in line for ppe.

I posted my experience of airports in March / April here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6229139/are-off-licences-to-close/p4

Not only were they letting people in, there were no checks or attempts to trace, compared to other countries. 

For PPE however,  there was a worldwide shortage. Much of it was made in China and when Coronavirus started  China needed it themselves and stopped exporting. Care home spent a huge amount of time and effort trying to source it, but it simply wasn't there.

epm-84

sheramber said:

A nd if they had closed the borders when would  they  open again?
As long as the virus exists elsewhere there will always be the possibility of it occurring again. That is what happened in New Zealand and Australia as soon as they allowed people in.

And we aren't as cut off as New Zealand and Australia.  For instance, Lidl in Ireland sell lamb from the Republic, which is processed at a meat factory in Northern Ireland (UK.)

I understand the virus re-emerged in New Zealand as the result of someone being let in to attend the funeral of a family member being exempt from any quarantine requirements.  It's also quite possible the new variant (which was first discovered in Kent) arrived from another country via a haulier carrying essential goods, hence being exempt from quarantine requirements, which someone who had been to a holiday home in France would not have been exempt from.

Thrugelmir

epm-84 said:

sheramber said:

A nd if they had closed the borders when would  they  open again?
As long as the virus exists elsewhere there will always be the possibility of it occurring again. That is what happened in New Zealand and Australia as soon as they allowed people in.

  It's also quite possible the new variant (which was first discovered in Kent) arrived from another country via a haulier carrying essential goods, hence being exempt from quarantine requirements, which someone who had been to a holiday home in France would not have been exempt from.

Variants are simply an evolution. South African is different too. Reason both were identified quickly is that both the UK and SA are pretty much world leaders in the field. 

sheramber

If the virus could vary in South Africa  surely it could vary here as well  or in any other country. 
Ws there something specific to SSA that caused the variation?