Nhs App Without A Mobile Phone

[smurfchops]

I have downloaded this on my mobile but my husband doesn’t have a mobile so what are we supposed to do if and when we fly somewhere on holiday?

[bednobs]

you dont need it for flying on holiday

[Buenchico]

^^^ The NHS app can be used to prove one's vaccination status, Bednobs.

Smurfchops:
Quote:
"If people cannot access online services, and they are due to travel abroad in the near future, they can call 119 (COVID-19 vaccination service status) to request a letter that will provide evidence of their vaccination status"
Source:
https://digital.nhs.uk/services/nhs-app/nhs-app-guidance-for-gp-practices/covid-19-vaccination-status

[bednobs]

as far as i know (although i am willing to be corrected) there isn't anywhere you can fly to on holiday and "prove your vaccination status" rather than do all the pcr testing business?

[Buenchico]

This Gov.uk link elaborates on the content on my NHS link above
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/demonstrating-your-covid-19-vaccination-status-when-travelling-abroad
and agrees with Bednobs that (quote): "Currently, there are not many countries that accept proof of vaccination. So people will still need to follow other rules when travelling abroad, such as getting a negative pre-departure test".

[smurfchops]

Thanks all

[New Judge]

Here's an example (taken at random) of the FCO travel advice to Greece:

"Arrivals from the UK must provide either; proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test, undertaken within the 72 hour period before arrival into Greece, or proof of two COVID-19 vaccinations completed at least 14 days before travel (see Demonstrating your COVID-19 vaccination status). Travellers with proof of either are exempted from the need to self-isolate on arrival to Greece."

[bednobs]

except you CANt go on holiday to greece atm, its on the amber list

[New Judge]

This, of course, demonstrates a more pragmatic approach taken by Greece with arrivals of its guests from the UK than the UK takes with arrivals of its own citizens back from Greece (who, vaccinated or not, must quarantine for 14 days).

[New Judge]

//except you CANt go on holiday to greece atm, its on the amber list//

Yes you can. You can travel to any country you wish. The Red/Amber/Green lists dictate what you must do when you return to the UK.

[New Judge]

^^^with the proviso that the rules in your destination of choice allow you to enter.

[KARL]

Since April (I think) Iceland has allowed those fully vaccinated carrying a certificate to that effect into the country from at least Europe and north America without the need for quarantine. They have been PCR testing everyone arriving at the border, including those who are vaccinated, for free in order to verify no infection and to ensure they can genome sequence every infection at the border. The same applies to those with a certificate saying they have had the infection, in which case a sample for antibody testing is taken. Iceland does 100% sequencing and tracing/linking of exposure/infection through that, key to their evident success with Covid - something the World's Best can only dream of (but don't have the urge anyway). I understand that soon, testing of those with valid certificates on arrival in Iceland will be discontinued. The reason for that change is apparently twofold: a) the incidence of active infection in those with certificates has been practically nil and b) the rising number of tourists arriving is making the task expensive. The largest number of tourists arriving are those from the USA. Iceland is in Schengen and decided that when opening to Schengen nationals in this way it was unrealistic not to allow others the same privilege. Iceland has already started issuing and accepting a European (excepting UK who are of course different) digital vaccination certificates. All other certificates are accepted once checked and verified.

[New Judge]

//Iceland does 100% sequencing and tracing/linking of exposure/infection through that, key to their evident success with Covid - something the World's Best can only dream of (but don't have the urge anyway).//

Which is not too difficult when you have a total population no greater than the largest London borough.

[chelle7272]

//Yes you can. You can travel to any country you wish. The Red/Amber/Green lists dictate what you must do when you return to the UK.//

Gov uk says only essential travel to red and amber countries - does no one check that you are just going on holiday then?

[THECORBYLOON]

As there are no legal restrictions on leaving the UK, there is no requirement to check the reasons for the travel.

[New Judge]

I'm afraid, Corby, this demonstrates - yet again- the confusion that the government has sown throughout the last fifteen months.

The ridiculous "traffic light" system is disreputable. The Foreign Office travel guidance states that people should not travel to Amber and Red countries but then goes on to explain what you must do before you depart and when you return. If they did not want foreign travel to resume the government should have continued to make it illegal as it had been for months. That wasn't particularly successful - there were plentiful reports of "Instagram Influencers" leaving for Dubai to work (which involved taking a few selfies and publishing them online). But at least the situation was clear cut.

[KARL]

13.51, It is not easier for 370.000 people inhabiting an island out in the Atlantic to summon the resources to (on top of domestic case loads) test and 100% sequence those free tests on a through flow of visitors exceeding 1% of its population every day than it is for a 66million nation with its resources to do the same and charge for the tests (except the current flow into the UK is less than 6.6 million a day). It IS easier for the smaller nation to, from the very start mind, genome sequence its own domestic case load tests simply because it has managed the situation so spectacularly well compared to the UK (for a type of comparison ask one Dominic Cummings) and the statistics show it. The oft suggested numbers comparison as an excuse for the UK's mess is as irrelevant as when others put the UK's unfavorable position by comparison down to bad luck. Although, in one sense luck could be argued as being the explanation - the accident of birth: Brits run the UK (in their way), Icelanders run Iceland (in their way). If you want to try one check of the validity of the numbers game, just compare Covid statistics for the Isle of Man (or if you like Fife) with those of Iceland - why is the Isle of Man (and Fife) such a disaster zone by comparison ? Is it because the Isle of Man (yes a self governing island) is inevitably dragged into the mud by the rest of the UK - why/how ?

[New Judge]

I didn't suggest that numbers were the only reason for Iceland's comparative success. But an isolated island with little in the way of international traffic was clearly never going to face the problems which the UK did. Quite simply, any meaningful comparison between the UK and Iceland on just about anything is impossible.

[KARL]

NJ, I fully appreciate that you don't want to hear/read anything that suggests the UK could be compared to success or that the UK could learn from the likes of Iceland. The numbers analogy for "easy-peasy" doesn't stand up, but if it did you would (logically) be arguing very strongly for the merits of Scotland becoming independent, Wales and Northern Ireland too, so they can do better than the UK. Not only that, England should be divided into much smaller independent units so that their management was improved very substantially. It is not automatically easier for far fewer people to muster the resources, infrastructure, knowledge and experience to run a country, each of the fewer people needs to be more involved, pull greater weight and all need to be more united and dedicated or it's not going to happen.

I am unsurprised that you know next to nothing about Icelandic conditions and I don't expect you to. Still on the numbers line, before Covid Iceland was heading for three million visitors annually, around 8 times its population - for the UK that would equate to 500 million visitors annually. Things are picking up in Iceland but past numbers are not at all in sight yet. What matters is the loading and the UK has never come anywhere near having to cope with what Iceland has managed - watching things unfold in the past 18 months or so, I am in no doubt which country deserves more admiration for what they have achieved on Covid alone. Disturbingly, the UK has been upstaged by Iceland on quite a regular basis and none of the UK's actions against Iceland have done the UK credit. The UK belatedly adopted a somewhat similar border approach to Iceland's (but not as generous toward visitors/arrivals) - had that happened a year earlier then one can assume that the story would have unfolded quite differently, but that is uncertain because things are ultimately done the British way in the UK.

I apologise for an obvious arithmetic error in my earlier post: not 6.6million but 660,000 per day but current UK arrivals are also below the lower figure.