France Placed on Quarantine List

Abel Tasman said:
I assume that everybody who has gone on holiday in the last week or two already weighed up the risks of going and this coming into force so I am also therefore assuming most will have no issue isolating for 14 days when they get home. Great if they can.

If they do have serious work issues though then you do have to question why they chose to take the risk?
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Exactly! No issues with people going on holiday. You have to assess the risks though and assume restrictions can come in at any moment.
 
Smog in Wilts said:
If you need a holiday, then you need a holiday. Everyone has been through a lot of pressure recently and it is good to have some down time. I live in Devon, the police are declaring that Devon & Cornwall are full. They are reporting a rise in anti social behaviour and it is very difficult to social distance in many small towns. The locals aren't venturing out and are in their own self imposed lock down.
Therefore if you need a holiday the other options are to go abroad and until recently they had managed the situation better then the UK.
What I don't understand is why we are criticising the government for imposing a quarantine. We criticised them at the beginning of the pandemic to be slow to lock down and impose restrictions for people flying in to the country. So lets home they have learned a lesson and are now imposing restrictions. I do understand the criticism about the loopholes and poor communication.
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The Gvt is getting criticised because, as far as I can tell, they haven’t explained the rationale.
Border lockdowns are effective when your infection rate is lower than those around you - according to Witty.
Problem now is testing regimes are variable across Europe - the more you test the more you find. Our testing is ‘questionable’. Given that, there is no fair way to judge on Witty’s direction.

What is really happening here is a reaction to the criticism they got for being slow out of the blocks to lockdown. The focus groups told them they need to be seen to be more decisive. They have to be ‘seen’ to be doing something and...... steal the headlines from something else.
 
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We were due to go to France today. Following government advice last night we’ve decided not to go. But now we can’t get our money back on the flights or change them to an alternative because we’re within 7 days of travel. Ok you could say there was always a risk this could happen but when they announce it so quickly with no time for us to make changes how can that be fair?
 
Jimmy_Salmon said:
We were due to go to France today. Following government advice last night we’ve decided not to go. But now we can’t get our money back on the flights or change them to an alternative because we’re within 7 days of travel. Ok you could say there was always a risk this could happen but when they announce it so quickly with no time for us to make changes how can that be fair?
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Sadly that’s the way it is. The virus situation is unprecedented in the modern age with modern travel and governments have to react quickly. The only difference here is they would probably have announced this quarantine tonight, but they wanted to get the exam fiasco off the front page.
Sorry you can’t get your money back though. Did you take out insurance to cover that? I think we all have to be aware the global situation can change daily at the moment
 
The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
No problem with that, my question is (and I doubt anyone knows the answer anyways) do they do similar checks when crossing from CH to France (Shengen Zone) to see whether you've been to England on your way ?
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Basel airport's in France, isn't it? Or is it considered to be in Switzerland/France/Germany depending on where you are headed?
 
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The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
No problem with that, my question is (and I doubt anyone knows the answer anyways) do they do similar checks when crossing from CH to France (Shengen Zone) to see whether you've been to England on your way ?
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Can't speak for CH into F but in the last month I've done a couple of trips from Spain to France

Trip 1 - drove (not all the way from Malaga - long story)
Crossed the border north of Barcelona / south of Perpignan - no requirement for documents, no sign of any border guards, no checks either out or in

Trip 2 - flights
Out into France, for the French authorities - When I booked the flights I had to fill in a hard copy form giving my home address and stating that I didn't have Covid-19 or any symptoms, had not knowingly been in contact with anyone who had, and would contact the authorities if I developed any symptoms within 14 days. Those forms weren't checked either before I boarded or when I landed, and are still in my bag now.

Return into Spain for the Spanish authorities - I had to complete and submit an online form when I booked the flights, giving home address, contact details, which countries I was going to, flight number, seat number on the plane, reason for travel, and any transit countries - this then generated a reference number. Two days before I returned I then had to go onto the Spanish Health Service website, quote the earlier reference number, and add to the form by answering health / Covid-19 questions, and promise to contact the dedicated Spanish Covid-19 service if I developed symptoms within 14 days. When submitted, this then generated a bar code which I had to download to my phone. When I landed back in Malaga, we were channeled into a dedicated lane, given a temperature check, and had to present the bar code for scanning and checking. All very well organised and quick (about 5 mins max) and everyone happily complying
 
Jimmy_Salmon said:
We were due to go to France today. Following government advice last night we’ve decided not to go. But now we can’t get our money back on the flights or change them to an alternative because we’re within 7 days of travel. Ok you could say there was always a risk this could happen but when they announce it so quickly with no time for us to make changes how can that be fair?
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Sympathise with that too Jimmy but they did the same with Spain a few weeks ago so it was always a danger. I guess you had to weigh up cancelling 7 days ago or run the gauntlet and sadly it has not worked out for you.
 
Jimmy_Salmon said:
We were due to go to France today. Following government advice last night we’ve decided not to go. But now we can’t get our money back on the flights or change them to an alternative because we’re within 7 days of travel. Ok you could say there was always a risk this could happen but when they announce it so quickly with no time for us to make changes how can that be fair?
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Part of your risk assessment for booking a holiday abroad currently should include these very short notice decIsions, also the fact most travel insurers do not cover for Covid 19 related issues , any holidays abroad are a gamble at the moment.
 
I’ve been in the Canaries for 4 weeks now because I don’t fancy the quarantine. Ironically it’s safer here than home but the government’s geography is so poor they can’t distinguish the mainland from the islands. Barcelona is closer to London than it is to us. You don’t have to quarantine coming to the UK from Madera, yet that’s a Portuguese island And you can’t travel to Portugal. Can’t make any sense of it.
 
Ingleby_Flash said:
I’ve been in the Canaries for 4 weeks now because I don’t fancy the quarantine. Ironically it’s safer here than home but the government’s geography is so poor they can’t distinguish the mainland from the islands. Barcelona is closer to London than it is to us. You don’t have to quarantine coming to the UK from Madera, yet that’s a Portuguese island And you can’t travel to Portugal. Can’t make any sense of it.
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You don't have to quarantine when travelling from the UK to Portugal, but you do have to quarantine when returning to the UK. That includes islands like the Azores and Madeira.
 
Ingleby_Flash said:
I You don’t have to quarantine coming to the UK from Madera, yet that’s a Portuguese island And you can’t travel to Portugal. Can’t make any sense of it.
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You do Ingleby.

From 4 July, Madeira and the Azores are exempt from the FCO advice against all non-essential international travel. This is based on the current assessment of COVID-19 risks.
However, the requirement to self-isolate on return to the UK from Portugal, including Madeira and the Azores, remains in place.
 
the_holgate_roof said:
These short notice edicts, mean people scrabble around to rebook early flights, ferry crossings and train journeys, meaning all transport today is absolutely rammed, meaning a much higher chance of cross contamination.
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Well I wrongly assumed Eurostar and the ferry companies would have to operate proper social distancing policies. How naive of me.
 
Cardiffdaffs said:
You do Ingleby.

From 4 July, Madeira and the Azores are exempt from the FCO advice against all non-essential international travel. This is based on the current assessment of COVID-19 risks.
However, the requirement to self-isolate on return to the UK from Portugal, including Madeira and the Azores, remains in place.
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Wow, that’s not what’s reported here, just shows you what rumour and counter rumour are doing. Well I think we might give it another week or so and then just take quarantine on the chin. If they said we could have the same rules as lockdown it’d be fine, but no excercise, hmm. And remember that’s coming from a safer place than the UK.
 
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