So much for closed borders

Apparently they have decided not to talk about the traveler isolation today. They will do it next week.
?

I appreciate that it is not an easy decision to make, but we are never going to get out of this in and out of lockdown farrago without stern measures. There was a woman being interviewed on the news last night who had come from South Africa via Dakkar and was then presumably about to hop onto public transport.

A colleague of mine recently ( this week) has travelled to South Africa for a funeral. I know this is one of the reasons for travel but I still feel it is rather foolhardy. She’s taken her adult daughter with her. I only hope she follows the rules of quarantine when coming back to the UK.

We wanted borders closed last year ,Nicola Sturgeon wasn't "allowed" to close them in fact the chief clown said there wasn't a Scottish border!!
Still some who wonder why we NEED independence ?

Scotland also couldn't do anything about people coming in via Scottish airports as they are controlled by the UK.

Sunlover - they still haven't got the hotels sorted so it will be entirely down to them and how public spirited they feel.

It was obvious that we needed to close our borders just as it was obvious that we needed to go into lockdown sooner rather than later. The government has let us down at every turn. The pandemic has become an excuse to line the pockets of their friends and donors whilst reducing the benefits bill by culling the old and vulnerable.

I read that we can't just shut our border as Australia did even though we are an island because "we are too connected to Europe" ???

It is a shambles- how History will judge us I dread to think. What little news I saw today said Hotel chains had heard nothing from the government regarding quarantine services they need to plan for.
Almost all Australia's cases can be traced to quarantine not being adhered to by the staff who were employed in them. It is so important to get this right but I sense the government hasn't a clue, as usual.

This government just hasn’t a clue. Why are 21,000 people still arriving into this country every day. I expected a trickle but not that amount. The large hotels are ready and waiting just waiting for Government direction which may possibly be this week, next week or sometime never. What a total shambles.

Didn;t Grant Schapp say we couldn't close our borders because we are an Island whereas Australia isn't!!! Education sadly lacking in some of these tories

Australia is a continent. Granted it is also a chunk of land surrounded by water, but geopolitically it is a continent.

Are the UK borders shut, or not? I am confused. I was thinking I wouldn't be able to come home for Easter because of the 2 week hotel quarantine, but if it isn't on, I could.

I don't mind quarantining at home. But no point if I am locked in a hotel.

NellG

Australia is a continent. Granted it is also a chunk of land surrounded by water, but geopolitically it is a continent.

Yes, it is by definition a continent.

According to Britannica, an island is a mass of land that is both “entirely surrounded by water” and also “smaller than a continent.” By that definition, Australia can't be an island because it's already a continent

It is far larger than the whole of Europe and has State borders which can be shut. It is 32 times greater than the United Kingdom.

Grant Schapps' grasp of geography is about as good as Dido Harding's grasp of basic biology "we didn't expect the virus to mutate". God help us.

Australia and New Zealand plus Papua New Guinea and other islands tend to be lumped together and called Oceania.

I did read an article saying some hotels in UK were ready and waiting but had problems with their insurers who refused cover, so they were re-thinking the situation.

Meanwhile, the U.K. border in the Irish Sea that Johnson promised he would never sign off on ......

We are starting on Feb 5 to use hotels for quarantine as well for travellers. About time, I say. Our rule is 3 days, and if you test negative, then finish quarantine at home; all at travellers own cost.

The government has continually warned people against travelling, but many 'snowbirds' spend the winter either in southern US or Mexico and have chosen to do so this year as well.

I was listening to a representative from a large hotel chain this morning and perhaps he brought up problems that we dont know about or even think about. He has been working on this for months he was talking about the air conditioning systems most hotels have and it is not suitable for virus protection as it moves air from one room to another The extra protocols needed are immense and then it course there is the hotels insurers. It obviously is not as simple as just putting the people in rooms if these are not fit for purpose.

I heard this morning that there will be a need for 1000 hotel beds per day to cope with arrivals from 15 February.

Presumably that means until then 1000 travellers per day are arriving/have been arriving in the UK from the affected countries and just merrily go off to wherever, to supposedly self-isolate?

There should of course be transport prearranged by government / airport / a contracted company. In China all arrivals are escorted off the plane, onto a bus which delivers them to their hotels. I assume the same is happening in other countries with this system.

Expecting arrivals from red list countries to make their own way to these hotels negates the point of them staying in them. If public transport is used and if infectious, goodness knows how many they could pass the virus onto on their journey.

This is already not sounding good to me.
What a mess!
Any why only 3 days ?‍♀️

I thought this scheme was starting on February 15th. It should have been done last March in my opinion. I recognise that the logistics of it are enormous but if it had been sorted out earlier we wouldn’t be in this mess now because it would be up and running.