Should the government be more proactive?

Yes they should!
My main client is a household name a company whose products we all have in our homes.
They stopped all employees travelling to and from China weeks ago.
The government need to be proactive before we have an epidemic.
Testing at airports is fairly futile as really it’s just a raised temperature, something that could be sorted by a determined traveler by taking paracetamol before landing.

I agree maddyone

Although I don’t subscribe to a lot of the scaremongering surrounding the Coronavirus, I would have thought that stopping flights from China where the vast majority of cases are, would be the obvious thing to do.

But haven’t all our cases come via Singapore? Should that be included logically?

I can see the reason for stopping flights to and from China, but as Suziewoozie has said the virus has come from Singapore also.

Logistically it is possible to put the UK in "lockdown" as we are an island, but financially it would be a massive loss. Where would the line be drawn?

It’s my opinion that flights to and from China should be stopped, in my opinion that should happen immediately. That at the very least is what should be done, in fact I thought it should have been done last week when some other countries did it.
It’s more tricky about other countries, certainly I know at least one person came here via Singapore, it was the so called SuperSpreader, who has now recovered, but infected about eight other people. The first two cases in Britain came straight from China Suzie, they booked into a hotel up north, the north east I think, and now another person has been diagnosed and she came from China.
The taking of temperatures is more controversial because as missfoodlove says, anyone determined to avoid being put into quarantine could simply take some paracetamol.

I think that flights should be suspended. It would seem to be a proportional reaction.

I was thinking of the so- called ‘superspreader’ maddy.

Yes Suzie, it is a very difficult situation for sure. I think the first step should be to stop flights from China, but beyond that I don’t know. So many other countries have got cases, small numbers perhaps, but the SuperSpreader shows what can happen.

I think PEOPLE should be more proactive. I have friends & family still booking and going on cruises and long haul flights which should be out of fashion now with what we know about the environment and global epidemics.

Its not all about forriners coming in, brits are still travelling and spreading the virus too.

If slow over ground travel was the norm these things would be easier predicted, contained and managed. And ppl could see more of the world without ruining it.

People cannot be trusted to cancel plans if unwell. Not restricted to corona look at flu and D&V bugs.

Whilst I think you’ve got a point notanan, I also think it’s unrealistic to hope to put the genie back in the bottle. Coronavirus apart, people will be using aeroplanes and cruise ships. However why anyone would book a cruise this year with all this going on is beyond me. Who would want to be confined to their cabin for two entire weeks? Long haul and exotic travel also seems to me to be something to avoid booking for now, although just prior to the Coronavirus appearing, my husband and I booked flights to Canada, but it’s not till October, so I’m hoping it will have settled down by then. I feel very sorry for people who booked cruises, holidays, or flights before all this began and now don’t know what to do.

I dont. Theres been no shortage of cruise destinations speaking out about how cruises are devastating. Even towns in the UK that have high numbers of cruise docking have had their disproportionate levels of respiratory problems linked to the cruise industry.

I do not feel sorry for people who still book cruises or frequent recreational flights at all
Some of them rethinking after this outbreak would be at least a silver lining to coronavirus, but those kinds of people are stubborn and selfish so they prob wont

What would stop someone coming from China ( or Singapore) flying to any other country and then getting a plane to London?

Banning flights makes great news and makes the country doing it look good and makes its citizens feel better, butit is actuallytotally ineffective. The gentleman from Hove went from China to Singapore, Singapore to France for a skiing holiday, before returning to the UK.

All flights out of China should have been stopped entering the UK almost immediately this disease was reported as serious, as countries have had previous experience of how quickly these flu type viruses can spread.

quizqueen why? (see my post immediately above)

I'm hoping that people will be turned off the idea of going on cruises, especially the largest ships, because of the problems they cause with the sheer volume of people who want to get off at the various ports of call.

Like everything else Dinah, cruises and mass tourism can cause problems in the environment, on the other hand, cruises and tourism provide the income and support for people in many areas. I have been told when on holiday in the Greek Islands ‘we need your money.’ In other words we rely on you to make our living. What should we do, abandon them to absolute poverty?

Traditional/slow travel does not destroy an area whilst vising it.

People clambouring for crumbs from cruise day trippers often have had proper tourism businesses destroyed by the very same.

Its sheer pig headedness to convinve yourself that fast travel is doing any good. Slow overland travel actually invests your tourist money in real viable suatainable tourism. Fast travel throws some crumbs while it does a whole heap of harm.

To call another poster ‘pig headed’ is rude and unpleasant.

Ignoring the obliteration caused by fast travel and worse, claiming it creates some sort of white saviour situation, goes beyond unpleasant..

There is no excuse for being offensive and rude.

Therea no excuse for the amount of fast travel going on and the utter destruction it causes

I mean come on what you said was FAR worse

"Im going to do what I like anyway bit I'll use polite words AND even claim Im doing the world a favour with my selfishness"

Utterly disgusting attitude