04-02-2021, 11:03 AM
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Coronavirus: Hotels 'yet to hear anything' on quarantine plan from government
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55932464Best Western Hotels boss Rob Paterson said he had offered support but was "yet to hear anything" back. "I'm not sure I'd have a job if I did that in my company," he told the BBC.
In January, Boris Johnson said UK nationals and residents returning from Covid hotspots would have to quarantine in government-provided hotels. But no start date has been set.
Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday that his colleague, Health Secretary Matt Hancock, would make a further announcement on the plans - and the timetable - on Thursday. But later, No 10 said the prime minister had been "misinformed".
There has been growing pressure on the government to introduce tougher border restrictions in the UK after emergence of new coronavirus variants from other countries, such as South Africa.
Mr Johnson has said it was "not practical completely to close off this country", but claimed the UK already had "one of the toughest regimes in the world" at its borders.
The organisation's professional officer, Lucy Moreton, told Today that while the "expectation" is their involvement will be minimal, "at this stage, we know absolutely nothing".
She added: "We don't know if the Border Force officers are going to be expected to determine whether someone should quarantine or not - or whether that will be done on the passenger locator form, or on an honesty basis."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55916675
Nicola Sturgeon announced on Monday that Scotland's rules would go further than the other UK countries.
Under UK plans, people arriving from high-risk countries on a "red list" will have to quarantine in hotels. The first minister said that would be extended to all travellers "regardless of which country they have come from".
The chief executive of Glasgow and Aberdeen airports criticised the Scottish government for not involving the industry in its discussions. Derek Provan insisted there had been "no engagement" over policies which have now "completely shut down our airports".
The Scottish government said work was ongoing on the details, and it "will obviously talk to the aviation sector" before announcing its final plans.
Mr Provan, of the AGS Airports group, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme the industry must be consulted if it is to help implement the measures.
He said: "There is no engagement with the Scottish government. We are finding out the next restrictions as the first minister makes those announcements. There has been an announcement of the third set of further restrictions in the same number of weeks. But, as of this time, we have no idea how that will work. We don't know how people will be able to travel from the aircraft to the hotel. And we certainly don't understand what monitoring and measuring will take place between the Scottish and English borders."
04-02-2021, 11:19 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: Hotels 'yet to hear anything' on quarantine plan from government
More than 10,000 people are still entering the UK every day with most disappearing before going into quarantinehttps://www.thesun.co.uk/news/139318...uk-quarantine/
04-02-2021, 12:14 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: Hotels 'yet to hear anything' on quarantine plan from government
Originally Posted by Dextrous63
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Omah, you didn't quote Hancock's answer. It seemed to be very clear and precise, insofar as he clearly knew precisely nothing.
It would have been a waste of space .....
04-02-2021, 12:22 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: Hotels 'yet to hear anything' on quarantine plan from government
It's a bit worrying really. We're all used to politicians making grandstand announcements about new and old policies without there being any substance behind their bluster. Most of the time it doesn't really matter. But where covid is concerned, it bloody well does!! The country is in lockdown which is and will take years to financially recover from, but more importantly people are becoming ill and dying.Generic prattle really isn't good enough. Specifics really are needed, especially for those who are meant to implement these policies.
05-02-2021, 01:04 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: Hotels 'yet to hear anything' on quarantine plan from government
Too little, too late ..... and not yet:Covid: UK hotel quarantine to start on 15 February
Quarantine hotels are expected to be set up near airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Passengers will be expected to pay for the cost of the accommodation.
The rules will apply to UK nationals and residents returning to the country from 30 "red list" Covid-19 hotspots - including several South American and African countries where new Covid variants have been detected in large numbers of people. Most foreign nationals from high-risk countries already face UK travel bans.
Ministers are also likely to increase the fines for people who break the rules. Home Office sources have said they expect fines will have a deterrent effect so traveller numbers are likely to fall from 1000 a day swiftly.
One hospitality industry source said the government estimated the cost at about £80 per night per person.
Hotel quarantine will come in to force more than 50 days after the South African strain was discovered.
A further 915 people have died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test in the UK, according to the government's daily figures. This brings the total number of people to die within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test to 110,250.
05-02-2021, 01:45 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: Hotels 'yet to hear anything' on quarantine plan from government
I don't understand. There will be a fair few pretty empty hotels near airports and indeed other entry points. Am pretty certain that these could be staffed and up and running within 48 hours. Instead of waiting for another day for Hancock to get his ar$e in gear and make his official announcement of there being a 9 day delay before commencement, travellers from abroad could be processed and in a room by Sunday 8th quite easily.Am pretty sure that hoteliers would be up for it, thus generating income for themselves. Plus the deterrent effect on potential travellers would be immensely invaluable.
Why do thing have to be dragged out and made complex?
05-02-2021, 02:02 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: Hotels 'yet to hear anything' on quarantine plan from government
Originally Posted by Dextrous63
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I don't understand. There will be a fair few pretty empty hotels near airports and indeed other entry points. Am pretty certain that these could be staffed and up and running within 48 hours. Instead of waiting for another day for Hancock to get his ar$e in gear and make his official announcement of there being a 9 day delay before commencement, travellers from abroad could be processed and in a room by Sunday 8th quite easily.Am pretty sure that hoteliers would be up for it, thus generating income for themselves. Plus the deterrent effect on potential travellers would be immensely invaluable.
Why do thing have to be dragged out and made complex?
05-02-2021, 02:29 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: Hotels 'yet to hear anything' on quarantine plan from government
Originally Posted by Omah
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Dunno ..... you'd think, after a year of viral penetration, there'd be a contingency plan (or three) waiting to be implemented but BJ seems to be flying by the seat of his pants with regard to border controls and the pandemic .....
), anybody anywhere on the planet with an IQ greater than that of a virus laden bat would have recognised that the most obvious way to prevent transmission is to, er, prevent transmission!!If push came to shove, one could easily imagine that even the other livestock in that wuhan market would have sussed out that being near to an infected cave bat was not in their best interest.
So, how is it even possible that some of the finest academic brains in the UK (several of whom attended private schools and Oxbridge Unis) couldn't fathom out that the most sensible immediate thing to do was shut the borders as tight as tight can be and quarantine anybody who really, really must travel here in a closely monitored and closed environment?
Even when there were concerns about mutated versions evolving a couple of months ago, still nothing was done. And only now, after a few weeks of being aware of further mutations coming to the fore, the response is to wait for a bit before the appropriate minister gets round to announcing a 10 day delay before we start implementing what should have happened nigh on a year ago.
If this were 1939 and the same laissez faire approach had been taken, we'd probably be speaking fluent German by now.
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