Fly me to the Moon - your 3rd travel Megathread - read OP

brickster69

Klonker wrote: »

It is turning into a mess. I thought one on the main ideas of the DCC was for tourism. Not much good if you need to quarentine anyway.

I think its just about keeping out variants (Delta at the moment). It'll be a moot point in a few weeks as it'll be dominant everywhere anyway.

Germany Delta cases doubling

https://www.politico.eu/article/coronavirus-india-variant-delta-europe/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1624801021

Valhallapt

Marcusm wrote: »

You better hope Loule doesn’t degrade further or the cafes, bars and restaurants will be closed at 3:30 on weekends!

There was talk of that at one stage, but seems unlikely now. Loule only has a population of 70K permanent so that skews the statistics, there is probably over 200K of us here now, judging by the fact I can't get a reservation anywhere in Quinta Do Lago at the weekend. I even offered to sit inside but even that is full!

Marcusm

Valhallapt wrote: »

There was talk of that at one stage, but seems unlikely now. Loule only has a population of 70K permanent so that skews the statistics, there is probably over 200K of us here now, judging by the fact I can't get a reservation anywhere in Quinta Do Lago at the weekend. I even offered to sit inside but even that is full!

Portugal is not adjusting the case rates to take account of seasonal population. Faro and Albufeira councils have already been put back into that category. Loulé seems likely to be next.

https://algarvedailynews.com/news/19286-government-warns-that-next-week-further-16-municipalities-may-be-at-very-high-risk

brickster69

Spain relaxing all restrictions for US tourists.

https://twitter.com/alfonslopeztena/status/1408815071023804419

Valhallapt

Marcusm wrote: »

Portugal is not adjusting the case rates to take account of seasonal population. Faro and Albufeira councils have already been put back into that category. Loulé seems likely to be next.

https://algarvedailynews.com/news/19286-government-warns-that-next-week-further-16-municipalities-may-be-at-very-high-risk

Yes. I read somewhere Loulé had more than 100k covid tests in one week, with a population of 70k... sums don’t add up as you only get a test here when you have symptoms... it’s tourists so when you divide positive results by the number of tourists + population, the rate falls into the green zone

votecounts

brickster69 wrote: »

Spain relaxing all restrictions for US tourists.

https://twitter.com/alfonslopeztena/status/1408815071023804419

Doesn't seem the smartest decision to allow unvaccinated people without tests into your country. Money more important than public health.

embraer170

votecounts wrote: »

Doesn't seem the smartest decision to allow unvaccinated people without tests into your country. Money more important than public health.

Must be some politics involved in responding to Merkel’s call to ban Brits.

It is a shame that the EU has failed on a coordinated policy on inbound travel from third countries.

That said, Merkel is going a bit far when German states all had their own approaches until two months ago. If resident in NRW, a test is enough (even pre-departure) to have no restrictions. If resident in Bavaria and travelling from the same country, face ten days home quarantine regardless of testing. It was a bit of a joke.

Feria40

votecounts wrote: »

Doesn't seem the smartest decision to allow unvaccinated people without tests into your country. Money more important than public health.

I'm all for opening up but this is just bonkers, think it's the same for UK visitors.

At least a cheap antigen test can offer some level of screening without putting visitors off too much surely.

brickster69

Feria40 wrote: »

I'm all for opening up but this is just bonkers, think it's the same for UK visitors.

At least a cheap antigen test can offer some level of screening without putting visitors off too much surely.

Special Relationship variant coming soon. They must of lost the plot honestly :eek:

Tenger

votecounts wrote: »

Doesn't seem the smartest decision to allow unvaccinated people without tests into your country. Money more important than public health.

I 100% agree with that sentiment.

But I would counter that the anti-mask/covid/Vaxx Americans probably aren’t going to have Spain as a “bucket list” destination .

Santan

This whole thing has really shown the ineptitude and uselessness of politicians almost at a global level, as pointed above, different rules for different parts of the same country. These people care for nothing but their next paycheck, bribe, junket or vote, how they are dealing with so many livelihoods in the hospitality and aviation sectors just makes me sick, deliberate mixed info everywhere from each and every one of them to confuse and scare, and what's worse is the opposition want worse conditions. Christ we have gone backward so much and I don't know if that's just Ireland or the EU I'm talking about, what a messed up place we have ended up in.

embraer170

Santan wrote: »

This whole thing has really shown the ineptitude and uselessness of politicians almost at a global level, as pointed above, different rules for different parts of the same country. These people care for nothing but their next paycheck, bribe, junket or vote, how they are dealing with so many livelihoods in the hospitality and aviation sectors just makes me sick, deliberate mixed info everywhere from each and every one of them to confuse and scare, and what's worse is the opposition want worse conditions. Christ we have gone backward so much and I don't know if that's just Ireland or the EU I'm talking about, what a messed up place we have ended up in.

Ireland has produced a huge number of influential leaders in the global aviation business. I am a little surprised that as a group they have not had enough political capital to have some influence over decision making.

I know this point has been long debated in this thread but I would still argue that Ireland is by far the most closed off EU state (further worsened by being fully dependent on air and sea for connections).

votecounts

votecounts wrote: »

Doesn't seem the smartest decision to allow unvaccinated people without tests into your country. Money more important than public health.

Feria40 wrote: »

I'm all for opening up but this is just bonkers, think it's the same for UK visitors.

At least a cheap antigen test can offer some level of screening without putting visitors off too much surely.

If your own population is vaccinated, what difference does it make?

Either we are getting vaccinated so the population is protected or we aren't. Which is it? Covid isn't getting eradicated anytime soon so best either learn to live with it or go down to the bunker and the delta variant doesn't change that.

embraer170

embraer170 wrote: »

Ireland has produced a huge number of influential leaders in the global aviation business. I am a little surprised that as a group they have not had enough political capital to have some influence over decision making.

I know this point has been long debated in this thread but I would still argue that Ireland is by far the most closed off EU state (further worsened by being fully dependent on air and sea for connections).

Only country that requires vaccinated people to get a PCR test and quarantine for some reason

embraer170

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

If your own population is vaccinated, what difference does it make?

Either we are getting vaccinated so the population is protected or we aren't. Which is it? Covid isn't getting eradicated anytime soon so best either learn to live with it or go down to the bunker and the delta variant doesn't change that.

I am 100% for opening up travel but I wish for coordination at EU level, to avoid case/variant rates growing disproportionately in one part (as we are seeing in Portugal now). Such coordination should go both ways (no unreasonable delays to opening up). Of course, public health authorities will never agree.

embraer170

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

Only country that requires vaccinated people to get a PCR test and quarantine for some reason

Well Germany has joined the club by requiring vaccinated travellers from Portugal to get a pre-travel test (PCR or antigen) and quarantine for 14 days. No opportunity to free yourself after 5 days either. Introduced just as the school holidays are starting too, giving people plenty of time to plan.:rolleyes:

uncle-mofo

I just went through security in Dublin about 30 minutes ago. No Gardai to be seen anywhere.

gozunda

Tenger wrote: »

This is actually a well known thing in immunology. I read about it back in Feb 2020.
When a health infrastructure focuses all or nearly all of its effort to combat a great threat it ends up ignoring lots of lesser threats.
EG. the 2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa was contained and dealt with very well. Unfortunately during this time there were less deaths from Ebola than there were from non-Ebola causes.

Just on this - do you believe Ebola deaths / cases would have been as low as they were with no containment?

Ebola is not a disease anyone would like to get. Hence the fire and brimstone approach there to contain what is in effect a very very nasty disease.

Obviously much more lethal than Covid but again without controls and containment - covid case numbers would have been much much higher.

From a public health point of view - its not an easy dice throw to have to make where it is known other healthcare services will be impacted (if only to protect those with a range of conditions and who may vulnerable to infection).

And no I'm not comparing the two btw.

Multipass

votecounts wrote: »

Doesn't seem the smartest decision to allow unvaccinated people without tests into your country. Money more important than public health.

Money is public health.
Something I fear is going to become all too obvious here in the years to come.

Tenerife has gone to level 3 restrictions
All indoor hospitality closed
11pm bars closed

https://www.janetanscombe.com/restrictions-in-a-nutshell

Barna77

Tenger wrote: »

I 100% agree with that sentiment.

But I would counter that the anti-mask/covid/Vaxx Americans probably aren’t going to have Spain as a “bucket list” destination .

Most of those Americans wouldn't find Spain in a map

dalyboy

Barna77 wrote: »

Most of those Americans wouldn't find Spain in a map

Most Americans don’t even have a passport.

Santan

Marine Layer wrote: »

Tenerife has gone to level 3 restrictions
All indoor hospitality closed
11pm bars closed

https://www.janetanscombe.com/restrictions-in-a-nutshell

It's one region there that has gone out of control for some reason, the equivalent of donegal for example, in the north of the island, not a huge hub for tourists at the moment.

TefalBrain

votecounts wrote: »

Doesn't seem the smartest decision to allow unvaccinated people without tests into your country. Money more important than public health.

Without that money you have no doctors, no nurses, no hospitals.

It's time to put the fear factor away and let the George Lee's of this world get all wound up about variants that are no longer a threat to the vast majority.

It's over and life moves on.

Zebra3

Looking to go to Scotland for a few days after 19 July, nothing booked though.

Am fully vaccinated a few weeks now.

Planning on flying to and from Dublin airport.

Will that be an issue?

Have done a lot of googling but lot of different answers out there.

patscott27

Zebra3 wrote: »

Looking to go to Scotland for a few days after 19 July, nothing booked though.

Am fully vaccinated a few weeks now.

Planning on flying to and from Dublin airport.

Will that be an issue?

Have done a lot of googling but lot of different answers out there.

I'm wondering the same thing. If the 2000 euro fine is still in place I wouldn't risk it.

M_Murphy57

patscott27 wrote: »

I'm wondering the same thing. If the 2000 euro fine is still in place I wouldn't risk it.

Why would we allow international travel on the 19th and then fine people 2k for flying?

You are confusing 2 things.

spockety

M_Murphy57 wrote: »

Why would we allow international travel on the 19th and then fine people 2k for flying?

You are confusing 2 things.

... because we might not allow international travel on the 19th... or if we do, it might be a glorious Irish fudge, where it's only in certain cases, with a 2K fine still applying in other cases.

M_Murphy57

Rte reporting that NPHET models show a delay of 2 weeks could reduce case by 10%. At our current levels that's 30 people*, mostly young people who wont even have symptoms let alone end up in hospital or die. Extending pup and business support for 2 weeks will cost a few hundred million.

So burn a few hundred million to stop 30 asymptomatic cases that will be no burden on the health system? Have we officially completely lost the plot?



*to try to make the numbers sound big and scary, rte mentioned that under "certain special circumstances" we could at 1000 cases by July 5th meaning we would prevent a whole 100 cases. Obviously they didn't elaborate on these "special" vague circumstances were. Be afraid. Follow the science.

faceman

Spain has reversed its decision on U.K. visitors and now requires proof of vaccination or PCR test from U.K. travellers