Indian variant

The worriedwell, this is really concerning. I have friends going on the first cruise going around the UK, without stops- saying this will be therefore totally safe. I wonder if they know about this ?

Of course UK residents of Indian origin had to be allowed home- but they should have been forced to go into proper quarantine in Hôtels and tested on arrival and later. But they were just allowed to go home without any checks.

"Why did PM not put India on the red list 2 weeks earlier when Pakistan and Bangladesh were added to red list? And why did they then delay a further 4 days to implement?" asked Yvette Cooper, quite rightly.

One of the variants of coronavirus first identified in India has spread to the UK. Just under half of these cases involve international travel and the strain has now been designated a "variant of concern".

India was added to the red list on 23 April, but neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh have both been on it since 9 April.

lemongrove

rosie1959

Whitewavemark2

Flights from India still coming into the U.K.

Yes but only for UK nationals who must isolate in hotels at their own expense

We cannot leave UK nationals of Indian descent to stay and take their chances there, they have to be brought home.

The Australians are bringing people home from India. But they still don’t seem to have community spread as a result of it. I wonder what they’re doing that we aren’t ...

The Australians are bringing people home from India. But they still don’t seem to have community spread as a result of it. I wonder what they’re doing that we aren’t

They are now after a complete ban but very, very few (only 70 so far), they insist on Covid tests and straight into quarantine.

Yes but only for UK nationals who must isolate in hotels at their own expense

And only for Australians who have to quarantine at their own expense.

So trying to claim that Australians are bringing people home from India is disingenuous. 70 so far out of many thousands and there had been a complete ban. The Government relented after protests.

Meanwhile many more thousands of Australians are stranded overseas in other countries and people who wish to leave Australia on compassionate grounds have to wait for government permission.

A couple of weeks ago travellers at airports were not segregated so whatever country they arrived from they were mixing. I don’t know if this has changed.

I think the jury’s still out on the Indian variant, but I think variants of concern will keep cropping up from time to time, because Covid is still endemic in so many countries. Hopefully the vaccines will adapt to cope with this. Locking down is such a blunt instrument, and an efficient test, track and trace is key, which we have not had, despite millions spent. Local public health departments need the money and resources to be able to manage this, with contacts being tested, not just being advised to isolate, and those who can’t afford to stay off work being paid to do so. This is the only way forward.

I don't think that the jury is out regarding this variant. It's more transmissible, a lot of people have not been vaccinated and we are relaxing lockdown further on Monday. Oh and we are working on 80 percent effectiveness with full vaccination. What could possibly go wrong?

All because Johnson wanted to go to India for another one of his photo shoots. imo

Headline in the I today: "Passengers arriving in UK from India warn of airport failures "madness":

"A woman who arrived in the UK from India last week has claimed that passengers from her flight queued for hours next to travellers from other flights, despite concern over mutant Covid variants.

"She told I that it took her four and a half hours to get to her quarantine hotel after landing ....... and that social distancing was non-existent.

"Red list passengers were directed to a queue for immigration but some non-red list passengers were also queuing as close as five metres away, she claimed.

"The Briton, who has lived in India for 15 years and returned to the UK to visit her family, waited for more than two hours in an immigration line and then for a bus to her hotel, with other non-red list passengers.

"She said "My concern was not only for us in the red list immigration queue but the fact this queue is in the same area as all arrivals. It's just insanity, it defeats the whole purpose".

It does sound very chaotic and makes a bit of a nonsense of the one-way traffic in shops that are virtually empty.

other countries have the Indian variant too, not just India,
so it may be coming here from multiple locations/routes.

Daisymae I meant with the jury is out that we do not know whether there will be more hospital admissions and deaths caused by the new variant. It is accepted that it is more transmissible, but not necessarily more lethal or more vaccine resistant. We will know more in a few weeks, when I presume the government will make the next decision as to the roadmap. Too early to panic IMO.

I’m not panicking. But I am always one step behind most people when it comes to being allowed to do things. I now speak to people outside and would meet someone in my garden or theirs. But I’m still not going into people’s houses. I was determined not to catch it last year when so little was known about the virus as I’m going to proceed with caution.

MayBee70

I’m not panicking. But I am always one step behind most people when it comes to being allowed to do things. I now speak to people outside and would meet someone in my garden or theirs. But I’m still not going into people’s houses. I was determined not to catch it last year when so little was known about the virus as I’m going to proceed with caution.

I’m behaving in exactly the same way, except going into my two children’s home as I know they have been vaccinated

I will be cautious until more data is available, and risk assess individual situations as they crop up regardless of what we are “allowed” to do.

Sago

Why are you looking to be offended?
It is quite clear why tidyskatemum has used the lady’s nationality.
I avoid threads now where certain posters have commented as some of you are clearly looking for an argument.
It’s like being back at school.

Yes, exactly Sago. It's blindingly obvious why tidyskatemum mentioned the lady's ethnicity (we don't know her nationality, btw - she could be British). It shows that even Indian people are critical of flights from India not being stopped sooner.

If this lady (who criticised Boris for not stopping flights sooner) had been white or some other ethnicity her remarks could have been misinterpreted as prejudice.

Incidentally I strongly suspect the reason Boris didn't stop flights sooner is because HE himself was planning on going to India on a trade trip - having bungled Brexit thoroughly he now needs the Indians (and Australians, Americans, etc etc) to buy our wares.

That's why he stopped flights once HE'D been told not to go.

Until then it was no biggie.

Self-serving much?

I can't see that it's panicking just to be cautious. If a lion was coming down the road and some guy with silly hair told me I didn't need to get inside, out of its way, and I knew he needed me to entertain the lion for the sake of votes he wanted in the future - I wouldn't think twice about working out what I thought was best of me and taking the cautious route.

Everyone that’s cautious balances out the risk posed by people that are refusing to have the vaccine, wear masks etc. imo Dr Johns blog today said that people that are vaccinated are more likely to be asymptomatic carriers. And also that Taiwan, where the virus has been controlled very well, are now having more cases. It’s not gone till it’s gone. Which reminds me, I haven’t taken my VitD today!

MayBee70 ?. I am a Dr John & vitD fan too.

I wonder if you go into a korma with the Indian virus ?

Ha ha EV

Or whether it can be passed on to your naan.

Have you been on the bottle EV? Or the Indian tonic water?

EllanVannin
My daughter sent me those.

Greeneyedgirl

MayBee70 ?. I am a Dr John & vitD fan too.

I watch him every night after I’ve had my tea. Don’t know what I would have without his blog over the past year.

Post pandemic I’m going to miss all the lovely people from other countries that do web chats on his bog. They’ve become like old friends!

MayBee70

Post pandemic I’m going to miss all the lovely people from other countries that do web chats on his bog. They’ve become like old friends!

What??? Do they discuss information while on his toilet?

Sorry!