xnetco

I think we’ll have another lockdown later in the year and that’s without other variants leaking in.

allergictocoach

Day 2 or before? What would this mean for tourists from green countries? Will a PCR test prior to departure to UK suffice or will we need one before flying and another on arrival?....presumably isolating while awaiting the results?
Seems to be a take off from the Day 2 and Day 8 test kits but not really clear how far “before” the test could be.

KARFA

It would only be a test taken in the UK and on the approved list of providers, so a pre arrival test wouldn't do I am afraid.

kingcole974

Can we use this thread to speculate what countries will be what colours?

HarryHolden68

Interesting analysis here from Robert Boyle, a former strategist for IAG where he predicts where may be Green, Amber or Red based on the criteria set by Government. Clearly nothing concrete, but an interesting read. First segment below...

"The UK government has announced that it will be using a “traffic light” system to classify destinations when it allows outbound leisure travel to reopen. We still don’t know when that will happen, but the earliest date is May 17 with an announcement due in “early May”.

We do know what factors will be taken into consideration. According to the government, there will be four of them:

• the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated
  
• the rate of infection
  
• the prevalence of variants of concern
  
• the country’s access to reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing
  

Nothing has been said about what thresholds will be applied. Maybe we will get that when they announce the classifications, or perhaps they will decline to set hard and fast rules, allowing a more nuanced judgement to be applied."

Kgmm77

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/coro...val-tests.html

Already covered here.

gcuk

I'm guessing the query relates to say a day trip, or even a trip up to 3 days, where the pre-departure test prior to leaving the UK is used as the pre-departure test to re-enter the UK as it's within 72 hours.
I haven't read the exact wording of the 'Day 2 or before' requirement but it would certainly seem to be against the spirit of the test being undertaken 2 days after returning if one were to use a test undertaken before even leaving the UK.

Gagravarr

If you're in the UK for less than 2 days, you don't need to book or take the day 2 PCR test. (This is a fairly recent change)

So, for a very short trip, no reason why the same test taken just before departure couldn't be valid for UK Entry as well as Returning Home

KARFA

I agree it could be, I was only really addressing the question of whether a pre-arrival test result could also act as a day 2 test result.

allergictocoach

So are they essentially proposing no change to testing/quarantine requirements for incoming tourists from green countries, most of which will have already been fully vaccinated?

Any kind of quarantine requirement be it 2 or 8 days will certainly sour that side of the market. A side which I am sure the airlines are counting on as opposed to just UK citizens coming and going.

KARFA

Have a read of the taskforce report posted on the uk arrivals thread on the coronavirus thread. Basically for green countries the plan would be pre-arrival test and day 2 test only, and no self-isolation.

So far there are no indications of any different treatment for those vaccinated vs those not vaccinated.

allergictocoach

Thanks I’ll look for the full report. I had not seen/heard anything about no self isolation while waiting to take and for day 2 results. Seems a funny approach. Travel freely and possibly spread virus whilst you wait. On the other hand if that risk is not a concern, why sack people with that requirement and the 60-150 GBP bill that comes with it lol? 🤷‍♂️

allergictocoach

Thanks I’ll look for the full report. I had not seen/heard anything about no self isolation while waiting to take and for day 2 results. Seems a funny approach. Travel freely and possibly spread virus whilst you wait. On the other hand if that risk is not a concern, why sack people with that requirement and the 60-150 GBP bill that comes with it lol? 🤷‍♂️

steveggetit

Interesting how Jet2 cancelled all flights including mine until June 23rd. However TUI holding fire.

I'm hoping to get rebooked from another airport to get to greece on an ATOL holiday early June!

People have got to know where they stand for Hols - not business travellers to Singapore, lovely place but you dont want to go to there on Holiday frankly

Sunshine and Retsina, froze my ... off last night in the Pub "under the Patio Heater" !

Roll on May17th when we can go inside in England to celebrate the Great British Summer!

Take care all and fingers crossed for some travel soon

PS If Gibraltar was Green, question would HMGOV know we had slipped " over the border " to Seville & Cadiz for proper Fino sherry drinking?

Cheers all

IAMORGAN

Thing is, with the virus and infection rates / variants, you can’t plan - because the virus doesn’t give us advance notice of where it’s going to pop up.

I imagine there are also diplomatic sensitivities at play here (hence coyness about numbers) and I expect also judging green / orange in particular (or yellow or whatever it is) will also need a human ‘sense check’ with the mark I eyeball. You can have all the data reported by countries you like but if the data isn’t making sense or HMG ‘knows’ something then there might be a judgment call. Very crude example but if infection rate in a country is low per capita but is high in an area frequented by tourists, or there is low confidence in the testing system. On the other hand you could have somewhere with apparently higher infection rates but good genomics capability so we have high confidence that issues will be spotted early and know a couple of local clusters away from tourist areas are dragging the per capita rate up. It shouldn’t just be somebody looking at a spreadsheet but needs a human to look at it holistically.