[Closed] Quarantine on return to UK?

But what happens after the two weeks? Wherever you end up, you should be quaranteening again before you can go home 😉

What is the consensus on using a family bolt-hole in Skye for 2 weeks?

It seemed to go well for James Bond 🙂

Skye sounds lovely. Except if you do develop symptoms and have to be carted off to Broadford Raigmore.

The islands were VERY against people visiting them a few weeks ago.

Half the villages in Cambs / Essex are putting up stay away / no visitor signs, I don't think it's just an Islands things...

Are hotels open then? That's the only other option I can think of. I know Airbnb is closed for UK bookings.

Tent on the lawn?

I suggested that but the mrs said it would be too hard for the kids being able to see me but not be with me. They're only young, and as above at risk.

Realistically nobody is going to stop you going to Skye. If the police do ask why you are travelling you have just returned from the rigs and are on the way to your home on Skye. [b] BUT [/b]

- if you are that worried then you must think there is a real prospect you will get sick.
- if you get sick, Skye is a long way from specialist medical help.
- if you only get mild symptoms how are you going to get food etc with no network around?
- a round trip to Skye will involve at least one stop at a petrol station = one more chance for you to get infected or pass it on.
- when you get back home to your family you will still need to leave the house to get food etc. Every time you do, you risk coming back as a carrier. If you get sick at home you’ll still face the same quarantine challenge you have now.

Given that of three households I know who have almost certainly had covid, with very good internal quarantine discipline none of the other occupants have developed covid like symptoms I think you may be over stating the risk to others in your household.

I m on a few fb resident groups for villages I have an interest in. The local hostility to newcomers is terrible, someone got their tyres slashed, another the locals keep saying dob in the second home owners to the police. I don't think I would risk it, up to you of course.

Just go home. It's what most people returning to the UK seem to do on return.

The locals in Skye certainly won't want to see you up there. As others have said, there's no medical support handy, no network if you have to genuinely quarantine yourself.

And what are the genuine chances of you catching it between the rig and home? There's not many folks traveling in reality.

The local hostility to newcomers is terrible, someone got their tyres slashed

Well. Morons are gonna moron.

if you are that worried then you must think there is a real prospect you will get sick

I'd say there's a higher-than-average chance. Mingling with Americans who arrive every 3 weeks, mainly from the southern states, the last lot I'll see arriving 4 days before I'm due to leave and the majority of whom are taking their God-Emperor Trump's word on everything CoVID-19, plus a torturous route home which currently looks like Tel-Aviv > Houston > Rio > CDG > Edinburgh. Plenty of opportunity to catch something.

Given that of three households I know who have almost certainly had covid, with very good internal quarantine discipline

In a normal house I'd agree, but it's two pre-industrial revolution lean-to style cottages knocked into one. Space is very much at a premium and it's basically one long chain of rooms. To get from the guest bedroom I'd be staying in to the bathroom I'd be going through kitchen, living room, utility room and up the staircase. Rest of family would have to decamp to the upstairs main bedroom for me to go have a piss. Realistically, two weeks of that with a 2 year old and a 7 year old is not going to happen.

You'd certainly be at risk of damaging your long-term relationship with the folk on Skye if you were to turn up there at the moment.

A number of hotels are open for keyworkers and folk who need to travel. Either find something in your own neighbourhood or just head home and lockdown there where you have support.

The idea of quarantine is to protect the place you've arrived at from an infection you picked up somewhere else. The UK is probably the fifth most infected place in the world just now; you have less chance of being infected than the average person who's been here since February.

Source for my '5th most infected": You can't go by number of confirmed cases because that depends on the number of tests, but number of deaths is a good indicator of cases a week or two ago. Looking at https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the only countries with more deaths per million population are France, Italy, Spain and Belgium (discounting San Marino and Andorra as their population is so small the stats are meaningless). Added to that our infection ratio has been rising faster than Spain and Italy during that lag between infections and deaths.

So unless you're officially instructed to isolate, or have been at personal high risk because your US colleagues refused to social distance, I don't see the need.

What are your employer suggesting or are they just washing their hands of the situation?

You are in a difficult situation what ever you do, and I can see at some point you will end up just having to take the risk.

You could go to Skye for 2 weeks but even up there it’s impossible to isolate as you will need to shop and get fuel etc. It can take up to 2 weeks for symptoms to show so you could turn at home infected even if you think you are clear.

IMO go home and stay isolated at home in 1 room for 2 weeks if you believe someone is that vulnerable

But surely the reason that the UK is the 5th most infected place is because the UK has been so utterly shit at managing infections coming in from rest of the world? As far as I can tell there are no government-imposed restrictions on incoming flights and absolutely no checks or instructions on arriving? Just pick up your luggage and away you go. I am most definitely "at personal high risk because your US colleagues refused to social distance" and I'm potentially travelling through #1 world's worst government response to coronavirus - Brazil - on my way home, I'm trying to be safe rather than sorry. As I say, both kids are at risk and I'd rather not take the chance. It's pretty clear that Skye is not an option and I can understand why. I'm just looking to keep the risk to the family home as low as possible. I'm also only hearing 2nd hand about the current UK situation. When I left my kids were at school, my wife was at work and people were still jetting off on their holidays to Milan and Tenerife and everywhere else. Maybe a tent in the garden is as good as I can do for now.

I’d suggest not taking any possible infection to anywhere other than your home. It’s not fair to take it somewhere else be that Skye or wherever. Rural areas may not have the CoVid numbers at the moment but they are being hammered by the economic impact. Adding a
health emergency on top would be devastating. You need to find some way of quarantining at home.

Edited - cross post with yours above. Touring caravan on the drive or something?

Rent a camper and park at home?

I'd missed the vulnerable kids bit, so my earlier post was a bit lacking.

Definitely don't go to Skye though.

If you can't be in the house with your family then you need to find somewhere near home for 2-3 weeks. Some hotel chains are offering accommodation, would need to do some research.

Where are you flying into? I presume somewhere like Heathrow. Could you get a hotel there?

Keep in mind Scotland is not as bad as rest of Uk (through various bits of good luck not judgement). It’s not Denmark, but if you are looking at May it should be better than now.

Yes there are currently no restrictions on flights (that may change if 1. We think most ex pats are home; 2. We are looking to move out of lockdown with a test and trace approach). I don’t think the current flights coming in are the problem - plenty of endemic disease now compared to the tiny numbers of travellers.

Presumably that crazy route home is the only way? That would concern me more than your Americans.

Maybe a tent in the garden is as good as I can do for now.

Unfortunately so, as long as you are very strict about not going out or going in to the house, but how are you going to use the toilet etc ?

Your kids will understand/ will have to understand.

Given the circumstances you have described, I too would be looking to self-isolate for 14 days on return. If your kid(s) are in the 'vulnerable' category it is a no-brainer IMO. Not only for the transmission with swap-overs you have been in close contact with but because of that journey too. The long-haul flights that are operating can be full or near-full with repatriating folk and therefore you are in close proximity to a lot of people. Take lots of hand sanitiser with you (and I would also consider buying packaged food, check if your airlines are able to cater fully).

Given your work have given you a pretty crazy route home, I would be pushing for them to pay for accommodation outside of your house. I know there are a handful of hotels still operating around Heathrow and it might be the same around Edinburgh airport. If they aren't taking bookings online you can try to call front-desks to see if they are open. Just be aware some hotel chains are taking bookings from when our current lockdown will be reviewed again and then cancelling when the lockdown is extended. So check for accommodation open now (arriving before 7 May) to be sure they are actually operating. I think I would try to find an airbnb or owner's direct self-catering unit somewhere near your home. Even though you can't book online, you can search for future dates and you can usually contact the owners by web form or phone. If you explain your predicament, they may be willing to help you out. e.g. NHS staff are living away from family in friends' second homes / holiday homes for similar reasons. With a self-catering place you can do one big shop and then hunker down, but being close to your home you could arrange to meet you wife and kids in a local park and just maintain a good distance from them. That will be tough, but allows you see and talk to them.

OP. If CDG means Charles de gaul as I think it does then I hope you get home ok. Seen the France has made that difficult journey home even harder as I assume that rio flight can’t happen now.

Sorry, on night shift and just woken up. Looks like it may be a moot discussion anyway if I can't go through Europe. The torturous route home I had was based on the reverse of a route that another guy had booked to get into Israel. Unfortunately he was let go so it never happened. We'll see how it goes, I might be here another 3 months yet but thanks for advice so far.

But surely the reason that the UK is the 5th most infected place is because the UK has been so utterly shit at managing infections coming in from rest of the world?

I think the argument initially was that we did it well and it delayed the inevitable few slipping through the net by a few weeks and bought us time to build hospitals and stockpile kit. The majority of the cases in the UK are homegrown though. The tabloids just like to splash people on the front page and say "look, it's dirty foreigners putting a strain on the NHS".

I m on a few fb resident groups for villages I have an interest in. The local hostility to newcomers is terrible, someone got their tyres slashed, another the locals keep saying dob in the second home owners to the police. I don’t think I would risk it, up to you of course.

As someone said, idiots are going to be idiots whether American or Scottish.

There's a difference between social distancing, social isolating and quarantine. If your plan is to quarantine properly then surely you're just making 1 tesco delivery order with 2 weeks worth of food, locking the door and not going out, that's quarantine, no one should even know your there!

I'd be pissed off if I lived somewhere nice and people moved there to social distance, but quarantine is subtly different. Quarantine is acting like you've got it, when statistically it's unlikely that you have, I'd have thought rigs were worse then cruise ships so you'd know if you caught it there!

Whether the subtlety is lost on idiots is a different matter.