Flights

[Blue and white stripes]

Ryanair have cancelled all flights between Birmingham and Alicante from 18th January until 28th March.

[Maria Jones]

Liverpool airport is the same

[Derek]

I think it is the same from other UK airports.

I read today that the UK has the highest rate of infections re coronavirus per capita in the world so I doubt if the Spanish government will let us in from some time to come. It is also getting back into the UK that is not going to be that easy.  Negative test results are going to be needed. We will be very lucky to get free movement this year I reckon.

Derek

[Blue and white stripes]

I think that by the summer holidays the Spanish government will be under a lot of pressure from the tourist industry to relax the restrictions if possible particularly if Easter is a write-off. Spain was open between July and September in 2020 admittedly with restrictions. Let's hope that by the summer things are looking better.

[NickiH]

I find some people are extremely negative on here. We may have high rates in some areas of the country in the UK but being at the front with vaccines and administering them quicker than every other European country we will be flying by the summer into Spain.  Spain won’t survive without any summer tourism and I can’t see them keeping their borders closed after Easter. With measures in place and the over 50’s all vaccinated if they chose they will have a pass to fly

[wilson]

I don’t think its being negative just being realistic. Spain along with Portugal, Italy and Greece if propped up by the ECB can shut its border all this year to tourism. It’s just a couple more billions on the list, I think most countries will be desperate not to be in this position in 2022 therefore sacrificing 2021 might be the only way forward. Or we can continue the yo-yo of stay in, go out, work from home, go to work, eat out eat in for ever. Myself and Mrs Wilson will be day 21 post pfizer next Wednesday but travel I think is a long way off.

[Spurs]

I was thinking about when we will be able to go to Spain earlier and I’m thinking April /May . I do think there will be conditions to travelling ie having had the full vaccine shot ,and probably a covid test etc . But I think the main issue will be that Spain and anywhere else will want to see a massive reduction in cases and deaths in the Uk as the numbers appear to be totally out of control.
We continue under Boris to always appear to be 2 weeks late on actions that don’t appear to work anyway. The Christmas issue was another fiasco and his tier system was too vague and ineffective and must be looked upon very unfavourably from abroad

[wilson]

I think fiasco is being polite. I was talking to a family member who migrated to Oz over 15 years ago, apparently all the expat brits Watch the bbc every night and they’re just incredulous with what’s happening. He said they have had 16 cases in the state, we’ve had 16 cases in our street.

[NickiH]

16 in one street 😳 people obviously mixing and not being careful. I have only known one person to have the virus in all this time and I’m a frontline worker. Maybe it’s down to the areas we live in. Maybe that’s why I find it difficult to understand the border restrictions in Spain. Hopefully with the vaccine impending in a couple of weeks will give us the chance to get moving again. I’m getting to the point now that we should just get on and live our lives as this could be around for years

[chris and jackie]

O’Leary was on tv slagging off uk new requirement for testing before arrival and basically said he was going to cancel all flights to uk until it’s sorted so assume he’s carrying out his threats

[wilson]

16 in one street 😳 people obviously mixing and not being careful. I have only known one person to have the virus in all this time and I’m a frontline worker. Maybe it’s down to the areas we live in. Maybe that’s why I find it difficult to understand the border restrictions in Spain. Hopefully with the vaccine impending in a couple of weeks will give us the chance to get moving again. I’m getting to the point now that we should just get on and live our lives as this could be around for years

With all due respect front line covers many things from working on a red Covid ward to a refuse collector, both essential roles but with vastly different risk to Covid.
As for my street I will give some examples.
A teacher in primary school, a teaching assistant who passed it to her mother, an Iceland checkout worker, an M&S shelf stacker who passed it to her husband, a taxi driver, both my daughters who work in social care who passed it to there mother and a daughter.Mrs Wilson had 17 staff positive in one day before Xmas at one point the trust had over 400 staff either positive or isolating ,none of these I would put as irresponsibly mixing or not being careful. If you actually look at the stats you will see that 1000s of nhs workers are isolating or positive today.

[kevinb]

My daughter in laws brother and wife have had the virus and are recovering, mate of my son aged 48 has been very ill with it, where my son works one of his under managers came in with it and infected two other people, my ex boss of seventy went down with it and was hospitalised, ventilated and died a few days later, first lockdown I didn't know of anyone who had it, definitely a much bigger problem now.

[Derek]

I find some people are extremely negative on here. We may have high rates in some areas of the country in the UK but being at the front with vaccines and administering them quicker than every other European country we will be flying by the summer into Spain.  Spain won’t survive without any summer tourism and I can’t see them keeping their borders closed after Easter. With measures in place and the over 50’s all vaccinated if they chose they will have a pass to fly

Reason to be negative. The UK as of yesterday had the highest number in new infections in the World per capita. You and others can tell the world we are leading the way and yes you would be correct if you were referring to those that are catching the virus.

Maybe take a look at Israel and then you will see a country that is on top of the game as is New Zealand. Closing the gate after the horse has bolted does cost more time in catching to horse than it would have taken closing the gate. Because the Government have been relaxed in enforcing the rules some idiots continue to protest that their human rights are being affected and spread the virus to others. It has been announced today that adults should be vaccinated in the UK by Autumn so the confidence shown here that it will all be back to normal by August will in itself require the movement of August so it comes after September and not before!!

Derek

[BeachLife]

Hi Derek.

Re Israel. Not really a "apples for apples" comparison with the UK. I have spent some time there. The population of Israel is almost identical Greater London and they (the country) are organised by the army in many aspects of life and most people who live there have done or are still doing good old fashioned national service.

They are very organised across what is tightly grouped population. If it was only London being vaccinated I am pretty sure our "% age of population vaccinated" would be comparable.

The issue in the UK is driven by peoples behaviors and not sticking to the rules. The government are in a trciky position trying to balance people's jobs livehoods and protecting peoples health - but there has to acccounatbilyty for peoples actions. Shopping at Asda on Friday there were STILL people walking around the store with no mask and no challenge by the security on the entrance. This needs fixing.

Why could it not be back to some sort of normal by August ?  You dont need 100% of the population to have had the vaccine for it to be supressed.

That will occur when 70% of the people have either been vaccinated or have had COVID and recovered. Sadly with the number of people getting themselves infected we could reach the immunity theshold much sooner than expected ! (in the wrong way of course)


 

I find some people are extremely negative on here. We may have high rates in some areas of the country in the UK but being at the front with vaccines and administering them quicker than every other European country we will be flying by the summer into Spain.  Spain won’t survive without any summer tourism and I can’t see them keeping their borders closed after Easter. With measures in place and the over 50’s all vaccinated if they chose they will have a pass to fly

Reason to be negative. The UK as of yesterday had the highest number in new infections in the World per capita. You and others can tell the world we are leading the way and yes you would be correct if you were referring to those that are catching the virus.

Maybe take a look at Israel and then you will see a country that is on top of the game as is New Zealand. Closing the gate after the horse has bolted does cost more time in catching to horse than it would have taken closing the gate. Because the Government have been relaxed in enforcing the rules some idiots continue to protest that their human rights are being affected and spread the virus to others. It has been announced today that adults should be vaccinated in the UK by Autumn so the confidence shown here that it will all be back to normal by August will in itself require the movement of August so it comes after September and not before!!

Derek

[wilson]

Beach life the anecdotal evidence is now showing that people who tested positive previously are now many months on testing positive again. Equally antibody testing now suggests any immunity is quite short with 8 months considered good. Needless to say talk of herd immunity has gone because the herd which is now 100k smaller than this time last year just keeps reinfecting each other. On a positive note if you remove 2/3 million from the herd each week then we could all be back in mass square singing along to Bojangles by August.