Coronavirus

seems like they are making a hash out of it again..

hash, as in mess, not wacky backy stuff, or delicious fried potato things.

 

Bieber ...

 

Was on the local news earlier about the spanish flu 100 years ago..

that had several waves, and i don't know about other parts of the country, but it was the third wave that hit this area most...

with other countries getting hit by second waves now, it's an inpossible situation for the goverment.

 

Which shares a border with France ... we can drive over the border to Bilbao for a day trip from where we usually stay in France ... indeed many Brits do ... how will they police that when you come back to Blighty? It's all FUBAR ... no logic, no common sense ... and absolutely no way of controlling or enforcing the 14 day bollocks ... twats.

 

They’re expecting you to enforce it as a responsible citizen. That’s it.

 

So how would you enforce it?

 

How then @Tobes?

 

Wash hands often and go for a paddle in local village pond should do it.

 

Well when ppl were saying that we shouldn't be so quick to start easing lockdown for fear of a second wave it was for these very reasons. Not least of which because when you row back on measures you put in place too quickly you end up creating more uncertainty, not just as an inconvenience to people or in an increase in the risk to their health, but for businesses themselves as it knocks consumer confidence and in the end has a longer term detrimental effect.

And this isn't just about quarantining btw, the FCO has classed Spain as a no go area, which is where we were in lockdown and means you should not be going there. It also means if you do then your travel insurance would be null and void.

 

Personally, I would have targeted only those coming back from those specific areas that have documented spikes and ensure that they have mandatory tests as they arrive back in the UK plus temperature checks That would be manageable - any with high temperatures or testing positive then self isolating until clear - we are supposed to have the testing capacity now and could turn those tests around within 24 hours - not perfect but at least track and traceable.

The blanket self isolation is impractical, unworkable and damaging to both he Spanish and the UK economies (and could cost even more jobs) - plus we already have the Cummings precedent of "arbitrary overriding" of self isolation when exercising "common sense" ... or not.

 

Unfortunately, people travel to and from inland Spain to work at the holiday resorts, so I don’t really see how trying to target specific areas would work practically.
Plus, in the middle of a pandemic, people have to really consider whether non essential travel is the right thing to do.
IMO the government has done exactly the right thing. If it proves to be too harsh, then the decision can be reversed. We can’t have it both ways, complaining we were to slow to react in the beginning but now we are too fast with the decisions.

 

Simply they’re expecting U.K. citizens who travel back to quarantine for 2 weeks without them policing it.

I heard yesterday people describing how they are being asked to complete contact forms on flights, then no one is collecting them on arrival.

Also we’ve had the actual Health minister explaining how people should quarantine on return and it won’t affect their employment. Only if you’ve got less than 2 years service, this lot changed the rules and you’ve got zero protection, so an employer can do what they like. There’s no access to recourse as they’ve not legislated for this.

 

Not even SSP for those who dared to go to a “safe” country which became “unsafe” all of a sudden. Some will argue such people were being naive or risky but seems unfair.

 

You’ve again described the issue but offered no solution, which beyond self policing is exactly the same issue the government is facing.
The health minister was asked about people losing there jobs and said the employment rules should prevent this from happening. I actually think that the current employment rules are crap, but I’m not sure what else he could say. Discrimination isn’t subject to the 2 year rule and IMO it would be hard for employers to argue its not discrimination.

 

The solution is, don’t have a quarantine from an entire country that has a much lower issue with COVD than we do.

Simply ban U.K. travellers from any hotspot areas until they’re clear, and for those already there impose a properly enforced quarantine with tracers contacting an employer and regular calls to the person concerned, together with a percentage being visited on a no notice basis.

Discriminating against what? They were unavailable for work, you sacked them because you can, excuse being whatever you choose. There’s literally no comeback. Oh and btw employee tribunal waiting lists were circa 9 months before COVID (austerity again) and in the highly unlikely event of your sub 2 year employment case for discrimination actually being heard, all you’d ever get is lost earnings anyway. So if you got another job (which you’d have to, to survive) you’d get buttons anyway.

Employment law has been decimated in the last decade by these chumps and people have barely noticed. Even beyond 2 years your current rights and opportunity for comeback are ****e now.

 

3 weeks ago the Foreign Office advice was only travel to Spain if absolutely necessary. They changed that to "go on holiday if you want to"...lots of people said that was a potentially dangerous thing to do, said it was too much too soon and that it would go wrong.
That has all come true in three weeks.
It's not using the privilege of hindsight to say thst the Government ****ed up and are trying to bolt the stable doors after the horse has bolted.

I ain't arguing with you personally but I honestly do not understand wtf our Government is doing.

Face masks on transport sre compulsory...from 2 weeks time.

Face masks in shops are compulsory ... from 12 days time.

Go to Spain...it's fine...oh ****...quarantine when you return.

 

Surely we’ve got the testing capacity (world-beating) and track and trace (world-beating) to be able to isolate anyone found to be positive quickly.

 

just heading in to meetings , so short reply
The government has always said there could be risks if you choose to travel and that’s exactly what’s happened. I’m not sure why the very same people who have continuously criticised the government’s handling in the beginning are now criticising them for a swift response

 

There was no need to include the Canaries and the Balearics in this measure. They have an infection rate far lower than mainland Spain and far lower than the UK. It should be Spain imposing the quarantine on travelers from the UK

 

I thought I read somewhere that our infection rate was 14 per 100,000 and Spain’s is 35 per 100,000 and rising...