I would encourage anyone considering leaving the UK to think very, very, very hard about it, and what might happen. If your trip out or trip back is or becomes dependent on PCR testing, you are playing Russian Roulette.
I had not travelled abroad because of Covid, until November 2021.
I only flew to South Africa as the UK health system is screwed and I had a list that needed attending to. My wife would have gone anyway as she has family out there, and she went alone in November 2020. I had had a cancer scare, needed scans, also needed dental work and lesser medical treatment. South Africa is vastly superior to the usual UK private and NHS stuff.
You get a bad back here, what happens ? Try to get a GP appointment. Maybe you get one, maybe she talks to you over the phone. Take pills. Go back to GP. Get referred to specialist. See specialist. Have scans another day. Go back to specialist.
Bad back in SA ? See specialist direct. Scans within an hour. See specialist again. All done in a single morning. Less than £200
When we flew in November all we needed to do was a PCR test in the UK. As we are double jabbed there was no requirement for any testing to come home.
While over there the UK government banned all flights. All flights into Europe were stopped hours later. We literally had a 12h window to get out. That meant travelling 600km to Johannesburg, getting an emergency PCR test and rolling the dice. We considered escaping via other routes - Mauritius, Middle East, USA, Other European hubs, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria ...... Many that tried these routes got screwed, the only winners went to Tanzania and spent 10 days there. Borders and air routes were getting closed by the hour. Those who flew into Mauritius ended up being quarantined there. Some flights to the Middle East were sent back.....
In order to get home we had to rebook flights at a cost. We needed to book a quarantine hotel - either 2400 for me or 3800 for the pair of us. My wife planned to fly to do a work assignment in Nepal but then they locked down too. So we travelled back together
If either of us failed to get the test in time, they were stuck there
The quarantine hotel booking system could not cope. No response to emails. No response to phone calls. We tried dozens of times, including through the night to get a booking. If you landed without one - £10,000 fine. If you did not simultaneously have a flight, a negative PCR and quarantine booked - you were screwed.
The quarantine hotel was a shambles. In late November the UK had zero quarantine facilities running so had to create them from nowhere. Untrained staff acting as prison guards, many were pub doormen. Locked down in your room for 23h 45m a day (United Nations guidance for prisoners is 60m a day outside, the East German Stasi gave prisoners 30m outside). Food was awful. We had a fire alarm superspreader event where one guy ran for it and actually escaped, another collapsed and required an ambulance. The staff had no clue what to do. Luckily deliveries were allowed so we got supermarket orders, amazon, booze.
People shouting, losing it. Parents pleading with guards to let their toddlers stay outside for 5 more minutes. Children crying when forced back into their rooms. People walking laps around a car park like zombies. .....
Our "hotel"
ttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10291907/Fire-alarm-sparks-chaos-Gatwick-quarantine-hotel-red-list-country-travellers-packed-together.html?trk=storyline-update-content_share-embed-video_share-article_title
People think it is 10 day quarantine. It is not. If you first test positive on day 2, add 10 days. If you first test positive on day 8, add 10 days. If you are a couple, one of you could end up in there for 28 days.
If you are employed in the travel/ hospitality industry the future is very bleak. You might want to get into the spreading panic or covid vaccine industries instead.
I had not travelled abroad because of Covid, until November 2021.
I only flew to South Africa as the UK health system is screwed and I had a list that needed attending to. My wife would have gone anyway as she has family out there, and she went alone in November 2020. I had had a cancer scare, needed scans, also needed dental work and lesser medical treatment. South Africa is vastly superior to the usual UK private and NHS stuff.
You get a bad back here, what happens ? Try to get a GP appointment. Maybe you get one, maybe she talks to you over the phone. Take pills. Go back to GP. Get referred to specialist. See specialist. Have scans another day. Go back to specialist.
Bad back in SA ? See specialist direct. Scans within an hour. See specialist again. All done in a single morning. Less than £200
When we flew in November all we needed to do was a PCR test in the UK. As we are double jabbed there was no requirement for any testing to come home.
While over there the UK government banned all flights. All flights into Europe were stopped hours later. We literally had a 12h window to get out. That meant travelling 600km to Johannesburg, getting an emergency PCR test and rolling the dice. We considered escaping via other routes - Mauritius, Middle East, USA, Other European hubs, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria ...... Many that tried these routes got screwed, the only winners went to Tanzania and spent 10 days there. Borders and air routes were getting closed by the hour. Those who flew into Mauritius ended up being quarantined there. Some flights to the Middle East were sent back.....
In order to get home we had to rebook flights at a cost. We needed to book a quarantine hotel - either 2400 for me or 3800 for the pair of us. My wife planned to fly to do a work assignment in Nepal but then they locked down too. So we travelled back together
- PCR testing in SA became overran. Testing centres were closed down. Result times went from below 20h to over 40h overnight at the centre I had used due to the surge in demand. The 3h emergency test centre in Johannesburg became a 6h service. The PCR test had to be less than 72h old to count
- PCR tests give rogue results, I know of 2 people who had tests on consecutive days with different outcomes. I have had 7 PCR tests in the past 2 months, all negative. A single positive on any one of these would have really screwed me
- Johannesburg airport car hire has 6 firms - only one had a single car and we got the last one
If either of us failed to get the test in time, they were stuck there
The quarantine hotel booking system could not cope. No response to emails. No response to phone calls. We tried dozens of times, including through the night to get a booking. If you landed without one - £10,000 fine. If you did not simultaneously have a flight, a negative PCR and quarantine booked - you were screwed.
The quarantine hotel was a shambles. In late November the UK had zero quarantine facilities running so had to create them from nowhere. Untrained staff acting as prison guards, many were pub doormen. Locked down in your room for 23h 45m a day (United Nations guidance for prisoners is 60m a day outside, the East German Stasi gave prisoners 30m outside). Food was awful. We had a fire alarm superspreader event where one guy ran for it and actually escaped, another collapsed and required an ambulance. The staff had no clue what to do. Luckily deliveries were allowed so we got supermarket orders, amazon, booze.
People shouting, losing it. Parents pleading with guards to let their toddlers stay outside for 5 more minutes. Children crying when forced back into their rooms. People walking laps around a car park like zombies. .....
Our "hotel"
ttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10291907/Fire-alarm-sparks-chaos-Gatwick-quarantine-hotel-red-list-country-travellers-packed-together.html?trk=storyline-update-content_share-embed-video_share-article_title
People think it is 10 day quarantine. It is not. If you first test positive on day 2, add 10 days. If you first test positive on day 8, add 10 days. If you are a couple, one of you could end up in there for 28 days.
If you are employed in the travel/ hospitality industry the future is very bleak. You might want to get into the spreading panic or covid vaccine industries instead.
