Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[madwullie]

16 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

It's the fact it was heralded as the magic bullet, the route out, the beginning of the end etc by a succession of Govt officials when they were announcing the approvals. You can't go making statements like that if they were patently untrue.

It remains to be seen is certainly the line now at best. Not exactly helping anyone already in a fragile state mentally in fact it's downright irresponsible.

Bang on. 

They'd made such a f**k up that they had to shine themselves up as per by over-egging and over-promising. Now they're having to deal with that. I don't think this toothpaste will get back in the tube though. You can't wave a carrot like that under people's noses and expect them to be like "Oh the government eh, what ARE they like!" and meekly accept backtracking. 

[effeffsee_the2nd]

Yes, if your £200 3 day city break is suddenly going to cost you £400+ (due to testing / certification etc) and take up 2 weeks of your time, then I think that may put paid to many peoples plans.
Same goes for a "family summer holiday", the £2.5 to 3k turns into £4k or £5k then folk just aren't going to pay it, not to mention all the additional hassle involved and stress of worrying about they and their family members test results.
 

I wouldn’t book any travel at the moment, not because the government says so but becuase practically it’s a nightmare, i still have to go to work, where if i catch covid in run up to going away I’d have to isolate and therefore cancel.
Then if the travel was abroad i could get tested on arrival and if positive end up in quarantine potentially for longer than I planned on being away and then have to get home at my own expense and then do another quarantine when i get back
Or the goalposts could be changed whilst I’m away and end up with a 1500 pound bill for some shity airport hotel
Nah , no thanks

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

We rolled last year’s cancelled holiday with TUI over to this year because they were offering extra bonuses/upgrades.   I’d imagine there will be a lot of that 80% who are in the same category.

Yes, would make sense. I've done the same myself with a few flights but starting to lose track now !!

[craigkillie]

Wouldn't the fact they have specifically exempted Olympic/Paralympic athletes suggest these restrictions could be here until they are scheduled ???

The restrictions are for training camps not the events themselves. Several athletes will reasonably require warm weather training camps ahead of the games themselves and this exemption is specifically aimed at them.

[Hedgecutter]

My dad who's in Oz just found out his dad / my grandad over here has died (at our time this morning) and will wake up in a few hours to find out he'll need to spend £1750 to stay in a hotel for 10 days should he have any aspirations of getting across for the funeral, whenever that might be.  Talk about kicking a man when he's down

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

I wouldn’t book any travel at the moment, not because the government says so but becuase practically it’s a nightmare, i still have to go to work, where if i catch covid in run up to going away I’d have to isolate and therefore cancel.
Then if the travel was abroad i could get tested on arrival and if positive end up in quarantine potentially for longer than I planned on being away and then have to get home at my own expense and then do another quarantine when i get back
Or the goalposts could be changed whilst I’m away and end up with a 1500 pound bill for some shity airport hotel
Nah , no thanks

Yes, I see your point and pretty sure lots will feel the same way.

There's far too many variables in play at the moment and of course it's ever changing which all adds up to planning being almost impossible.

From my own perspective, I'm quite happy to book in advance if a decent price, free cancellation and pay on arrival offered as the risk is then non existent and if things don't work out then it's just a click of the mouse to cancel it all.

[Turkmenbashi]

3 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

My dad who's in Oz just found out his dad / my grandad over here has died (at our time this morning) and will wake up in a few hours to find out he'll need to spend £1750 to stay in a hotel for 10 days should he have any aspirations of getting across for the funeral, whenever that might be.  Talk about kicking a man when he's down

He will no problems with that regard traveling from Australia. It's only South America, Portugal and Africa that that is required.

[Hedgecutter]

5 minutes ago, Turkmenbashi said:

He will no problems with that regard traveling from Australia. It's only South America, Portugal and Africa that that is required.

That's for England.  Scotland has gone further and extended it to anywhere foreign:

BBC News - Covid in Scotland: Quarantine hotel plan to cover all overseas flights

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55987460

Edited February 9, 2021 by Hedgecutter

[Todd_is_God]

5 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

That's for England.  Scotland has gone further and extended it to anywhere foreign:

BBC News - Covid in Scotland: Quarantine hotel plan to cover all overseas flights

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55987460

Fly into an English airport. That's how pointless this sabre rattling PR exercise is.

Edited February 9, 2021 by Todd_is_God

[D.A.F.C]

Cant see foreign holidays being OK this summer. Perhaps some of Spain or Europe maybe.

Hope im wrong, I guess travel industry are just trying to keep going. Cant blame them.

A daily testing system plus a proper track and trace would help travelers.

Woman on the news saying she's just returned from South Africa without speaking to anyone or any testing. Absolute tinpot country.

[stumigoo]

I always check in with the wee Guardian graphic each day. Things definitely heading in the right direction.

[Hedgecutter]

4 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

Fly into an English airport. That's how pointless this sabre rattling PR exercise is.

I was thinking that, but obvious workaround just seems too obvious to be true.

This rule will Shirley just decimate non-domestic travel in Scotland and just force folk to travel further through the UK.  No sane person will fly from a non-red list country into Scotland when they can go to Manchester and get a train or rental car that I would imagine is significantly less than £1750.

[djchapsticks]

Been on and off the phone for weeks to Business Gateway who have been saying that there's a 'mobile close contact services' relief fund coming for several months.

My partner has been a self-employed hairdresser since late August 2020 and due to having no-business premises, has not (until now) qualified for any sort of relief so been living off of the little money she's managed to stash in the couple of months before December to pay mortgage, bills, etc.

We were told though that newly self-employed hairdressers, nail workers etc working from home would be eligible for a 'forced to close relief fund' and was advised by Business Gateway to email a local MSP (In my case, Tom Arthur) to request an update on when this would be available.

I received a call about an hour ago from a case worker out of Tom Arthur's office who was letting me know that the relief was now about to go live and that for not being able to work, my partner would be eligible for up to £4000 as a one-time grant and she was sending me the details.

As soon as I clicked the link, eligibility criteria was below:

 

I explain that my partner is NEWLY self-employed (ie, 7 months - no set of accounts yet published) so is not eligible and get told 'oh, there's a newly self employed relief fund' so have a look at that.

 

Laughable stuff. Honestly.

So basically my partner is up shit creek without a paddle for having the gall to leave a failing business and go out on her own last year. I express this to the case worker who replies that 'Yes, it's disappointing'. Is it? Is it fucking disappointing?! I explain that it's not 'disappointing', it's completely infuriating and leaves my partner (who is already as fucking down as I've ever seen her) wondering when she'll ever catch any sort of a break here. It's massively frustrating that despite seemingly every other business in her sector having money thrown at them to keep themselves afloat, hers is disregarded as a fully registered and completely above board, but ultimately new business.

So it makes me question why my partner should be considered important enough and high risk enough to be forced into closure, but not important enough to be subsidised for her sacrifice? I'm quite sure if she started to trade on the downlow, she'd be as subject to the laws as any other business. 

I can't get my head around it. We've been told and assured for the last 3 months to hold off as this grant was coming. We were also told that they were aware newly self employed people were slipping the net and something would be set up to help them out, that help would definitely be coming her way. 

We're completely gutted at this. It's as close as I've come to being broken by the entire thing.

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by djchapsticks

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

Cant see foreign holidays being OK this summer. Perhaps some of Spain or Europe maybe.

Hope im wrong, I guess travel industry are just trying to keep going. Cant blame them.

A daily testing system plus a proper track and trace would help travelers.

Woman on the news saying she's just returned from South Africa without speaking to anyone or any testing. Absolute tinpot country.

Does she know that she's looking at 10 years and a 10k fine ??

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Hedgecutter said:

I was thinking that, but obvious workaround just seems too obvious to be true.

This rule will Shirley just decimate non-domestic travel in Scotland and just force folk to travel further through the UK.  No sane person will fly from a non-red list country into Scotland when they can go to Manchester and get a train or rental car that I would imagine is significantly less than £1750.

Yes, pretty sure something will change on this very shortly as if we've thought about this I'm sure so have they !!

[Hedgecutter]

Just now, WATTOO said:

Yes, pretty sure something will change on this very shortly as if we've thought about this I'm sure so have they !!

Aye, they'll almost certainly change it to 'anybody travelling to Scotland who has been abroad in the past week', or something along those lines.

[Michael W]

6 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

I was thinking that, but obvious workaround just seems too obvious to be true.

This rule will Shirley just decimate non-domestic travel in Scotland and just force folk to travel further through the UK.  No sane person will fly from a non-red list country into Scotland when they can go to Manchester and get a train or rental car that I would imagine is significantly less than £1750.

You won't pass through immigration in Scotland if you do this so unless Police Scotland know who you are, what you look like and where you've actually travelled from and are waiting ready to escort you to the adjacent Travelodge, you'll be on your way. 

Whether a traveller from, say, Spain can be arsed with this hassle or not is a different matter. It'd probably deter me because I couldn't be arsed. 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Michael W

[Todd_is_God]

4 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

I was thinking that, but obvious workaround just seems too obvious to be true.

This rule will Shirley just decimate non-domestic travel in Scotland and just force folk to travel further through the UK.  No sane person will fly from a non-red list country into Scotland when they can go to Manchester and get a train or rental car that I would imagine is significantly less than £1750.

NS said a few weeks ago there was little she could do about it as there is free movement between England and Scotland, but hoped that the UK Gov would implement things to support them on it.

Clearly they have not done anything, as, to be frank, why would they?

[Paco]

Fly into an English airport. That's how pointless this sabre rattling PR exercise is.

Yeah, it’s hard not to see this as utterly pointless while England’s airports are essentially as open as they’ve ever been. There will be a handful of people entering hotel quarantine down South in the next few weeks, as anyone truly needing to make the journey will simply fly around it via Doha/Amsterdam/Dublin (and most destinations on the red list don’t even currently have direct flights either).

Scotland’s won’t be vastly different. Again, anyone who really needs to make the journey will simply fly to England. And why wouldn’t you?

I can vaguely understand a short-term Scottish policy difference in an attempt to influence the UK Government into doing what they’d like to see UK-wide. In the long run, it’s utterly pointless.

[Elixir]

Quote

Posted at 17:1417:14

Lifting NI restrictions 'needs 70-80% vaccinated'

PA MediaCopyright: PA Media

Covid-19 restrictions will not be fully lifted in Northern Ireland until 70 to 80% of people have been vaccinated, the chief medical officer says.

So far, about 22% of adults have received at least a first dose of a vaccine, Dr Michael McBride told a media briefing.

If the rate of case numbers keeps falling, "we will hopefully be able to do some things this summer like we did last summer", he says.

Over time new variants such as those which have emerged in South Africa and Brazil could be detected in NI, however, he says "they may not become the dominant strain".

Patricia Donnelly, who heads up NI's vaccine programme, says arrangements are being made for clinically vulnerable 16 to 18-year-olds to receive the Pfizer vaccine within weeks.

What is it with the lack of clarity surrounding comments like this? Talk of 'hopefully able to do things like last summer' is a tragedy, but then does vaccination rates of '70-80%' mean all restrictions are in the bin, even through winter?