To quarantine or not?

[RichP]

Four of us were planning on riding the TET in Spain for the first two weeks in September and have already booked the ferry One option we have got is to catch the ferry to Spain, ride the 70 miles to the French border and ride the TET back up through France. As far as I can see there are no travel restriction between France and Spain. Our ferry out is on the 30th August, arriving on the 1st September and we were planning on coming back to the UK on 16th September. I've tried to find out if we would need to self isolate on returning to the UK even though it will be more than 14 days after leaving Spain but can't find an answer. Does anyone on the forum know the answer? Cheers Rich

[Tramp]

Some don't agree with what I did but my choice... When in June we could travel unofficially to France I went... For 5 days then submitted the free quires paperwork for a quarentine ref... No fucker cared a shit in immigration on my return... I went back to work during the supposed 14 day quarentine period.. No one came and checked as over 20,000 wasn't checked either in that 10 day period before uk plc changed their mind...

So my advice your choice to follow or not.. Go have a safe good time be very careful on cleanlyness etc your safe in europe... Fill in any forms if its required and go back to work... Don't worry no fucker will check up...

But come Sept it'll either be all locked down or back to normal..

Hope this helps... I've been back and forth to Europe as a hgv driver recently so have a kinda wrapped take on this pandemic...

Most don't know jack shit... I'm brutally honest sorry.. The covid 19 has taught me a awful lot... Look after yourself no one else cares..

My farther spent from October last year till 2 weeks ago near malaga in a camper... He saw the whole Spanish process... Its a eye opener... Uk is free and nothing like Spain was... France and Germany are the best safest country's at present...

[Tonibe63]

I don't think anyone can know what the answer will be at that time but if you were sailing to Spain today your assessment of being in France for the 14 days prior to returning to the UK would cancel out any need to quarantine because France is not currently in the red zone.
The caveat to that is the need to protect your family upon your return but that is the same as it is in the UK now regarding masks, hand washing and social distancing.

[RichP]

Thanks both for your comments. Lets see what happens in the next few weeks.

[garyboy]

I ain't got a clue .....

but the wording seems to be .. `travellers coming from Spain`.. so that may (or may not) be interpreted as `travellers coming directly from Spain only` .. but I am not the foreign secretary and he advises no travel to Spain.

France and germany are experiencing rising covid rates, and there is talk of lockdown in these countries, perhaps soon.

The advice is to contact your insurance provider for advice on what to do.
remember that any travel insurance to Spain will be invalid, anyway, it seems?

It may be a good idea to plan for 14 days quarantine, as indications are in that direction anyway, especially if your work can a[[ow this, eg teacher on holiday? unemployed, furloughed etc??



I suppose its all about balancing risks against the need to do the TET at this dodgy time, together with the likelihoods of refunds, or prosecutions, uninsured loses, etc, or none of the above?

no one can tell you what the situation will be in the near future .. you could be locked down at any hour, as shown yesterday ..let alone next month. .. and there does not seem to be any guidance on travelling through one country to another ..

does .. from spain mean `directly` or does it mean from spain ` at one point .... perhaps mr raab will give you an answer?

Appologies if this is all obvious

ps .. if you quarantine here in uk for 14 days, you need to do the paperwork here in the UK, name adress of place, and probably date left spain .. so my personal opinion is that you have not just left spain and dont need to declare anything ... but i am usually wrong .. it seems

Bits from the Government site on travel .. that may contain some relevant information
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advic ... quirements
the UK GOV site says that .. ``Border checks may also be in place at points on France’s land borders with Italy, Spain, Belgium and Germany.``
You don't need a travel certificate .. but it does mention, that use of that certificate includes `any countries travelled through in the last 30 days` .. hmmm
gov uk .. `Travellers from any country showing signs of a COVID-19 infection upon arrival in mainland France will have to carry out a mandatory 14-day quarantine at home or in a dedicated location indicated by the French authorities if home quarantine is not feasible.`
.. `If you are travelling from or through France, check the situation at your destination before you travel.`

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus ... -corridors ..... from spain ..
..`You will need to self-isolate if you visited or made a transit stop in a country that is not on the list in the 14 days before you arrive in England. ..This applies to all travel to England, by train, ferry, coach, air or any other route.`

ps .. you need to show your journey is essential, in any travel log info

`Example of when you would need to self-isolate ..
You are in a country that is not on the list below. You travel to a country that is on the list and you stay there for 4 days from the day after you arrive. You then travel to England.
When you get back to England, you will need to self-isolate for 10 days, not the usual 14 days. That is because you have spent 4 of the 14 days in a country that is on the list.`

[daveuprite]

I've tried to find out if we would need to self isolate on returning to the UK even though it will be more than 14 days after leaving Spain but can't find an answer.

Slim chance of an unequivocal answer to that right now. Policy is being made on the hoof and then rapidly withdrawn or modified when ministers realise its unworkable - which is precisely how NOT to formulate policy. It has led large numbers of people confused and it's eroded the small amount of trust in this UK government's decisions that remained after brexit. As Tramp has shown, if a rule is not enforced people will ignore it. Someone arriving back from Spain yesterday appeared on BBC this morning - he and his fellow passengers just walked through the airport without form-filling, quarantine pledges, covid tests or temperature checks. Sure there's a gestation period that prevents the tests from being 100% accurate, but the fact that absolutely no attempts are being made is extraordinary. Unless they quarantined voluntarily, anyone on that flight who had caught CV19 in Spain in the last few days would now be spreading it unmonitored throughout their usual UK haunts, travel hubs and workplaces. So much for 'World-Beating Track and Trace'. An absolute joke. The very easiest place to start tracking and tracing is an airport, so if they're not doing it there, you can't really believe that they are doing it convincingly anywhere. A country that can't organise/afford an excellent track and trace operation right now should really be in full lockdown - for everyone's sake.

Because the UK has not dealt with the virus competently, as of this morning the UK remains the most infected place (as an entire state) in Europe, so it is still other countries that need to defend themselves from UK travelers, not the other way round. Obviously this could change if the UK government eventually takes proper control of events, but for now opening up huge holiday resorts in Spain/Turkey/Greece etc to largely unlimited UK visitors was always going to be a very risky strategy.

[Flipflop]

Will your insurance be valid? We are led to believe not.
We are due to ride down through Spain, on off road tracks, at the beginning of September and sail out from Bilboa 2 weeks later.

However if one of us has an accident our health and vehicle insurance is invalid - too much risk for us unfortunately.

[DavidS]

FYI. France seem to have had 48 more cases in the last 14 days than the UK.
Cherry picking ‘facts’ to suit an argument/gripe is shoddy.

If Spain were allegedly so proactive with their lockdown, why is their infection rate so huge?

Having a one nation hatchet job is a personal grudge, not a reasoned assessment of the whole situation, even accepting the UK’s high figures.

[Asgard]

David:


France: 130, 578 cases - 30,192 deaths

UK: 299,426 cases - 45,752 deaths

Both figures from worldometer and probably inacurate, but I can't find any measure that says UK is bettering France

Considering our size and the fact we are an Island, I think the UK's Record on this is wide open for criticism, few countries have been anywhere near as inept in their handling of the Pandemic.

It's probably safer most anywhere in Europe than it is here

[DavidS]

I was referring to the last two weeks, not overall, which seemed to be Dave’s reference.
I fully accept it’s not good and the daily infections are still worrying but the constant bitching isn’t going to help or resolve anything just getting more and more boring and equally worrying is Dave’s comment that Facebook News is his source.

Do we have any reason to believe other country’s figures?
Sweden cocked it up big time but were hailed as heroic.