Close borders to all non-essential travellers

Close borders to all non-essential travellers

Why the contribution is important

To prevent further spread of virus and allow “contact tracing” to be properly implemented.

by Odonnchu on May 06, 2020 at 09:13PM

Current Rating

Average rating: 4.1
Based on: 24 votes

Comments

  • Posted by WSR May 06, 2020 at 22:10

    How could you define "essential". I consider it essential for my mental and physical health to be with my family. That means travelling between 400 and 600 miles.

  • Posted by alexmcculloch May 06, 2020 at 23:32

    If not close borders then specific checks and self-isolation on entering Scotland from outside UK and from other UK nations also if circumstances dictate

  • Posted by zip May 07, 2020 at 00:55

    We have the highest infection rate in Europe, so sadly we’re more likely to export than import the virus.

  • Posted by BUTEMACS May 07, 2020 at 00:58

    No closed borders in my opinion.

  • Posted by Lindaoban May 07, 2020 at 09:07

    The time to close international borders has already passed. U.K. should have done this and it didn’t. Even worse our overseas arrivals from countries with CV-19 were not temperature checked on arrival and no health screening took place.

  • Posted by HTML May 07, 2020 at 10:12

    Really...why do people keep thinking about themselves - We are all suffering in a lock down. I completely agree with closing border temporarily until the situation becomes more clear, if England is opening up - since they may experience a second spike.

    Also, i would define essential travel as somewhere you need to go get supplies/medicine/medical attention whilst minimizing the risk you put others in. e.g. travelling 400/600 miles may put you in a traffic accident = police and hospital staff needs to save you but this could have been avoided if you Skype or called instead. If you are not going to think of others because of your selfishness then at least think of your family who you may infect.

    “Intensely selfish people are always very decided as to what they wish. They do not waste their energies in considering the good of others.”

  • Posted by miandl May 08, 2020 at 16:58

    Essential surely covers all administrative, business, close-family/household or health reasons excluding trips just for entertainment, exercise, larger family events, shopping, or tourism.

    There's likely to be a differentiation in the future between travel between "low-risk" and "high-risk" areas: where travel from "low-risk" to "low-risk" is likely to be handled differently from "high-risk" to "low-risk".

    Many essential trips involve the need for presence, but become totally un-economic/impossible if the minimum period of travel is 14 days plus.

    Arranging the logistics for a period of quarantine, when one has no local support network, is extremely difficult.

    What about the person whose activities require regular, repeated trips of less than 10 days:
    not just the key transport workers, who might spend 1- 3 days in Scotland on deliveries, but other activities like salesmen, tradesmen, technical installation staff, maintenance and support-staff, factors, auditors ?

    It is a quandary.

    Once reliable tests are available which either determine anti-body status, or presence of the virus even if someone is asymptomatic, then there is no need for extended quarantine except for those shown to be actively infected (and therefore potentially contagious). Until such tests are available, scrict quarantine arrangements are probably necessary, but once they are, they should be used extensively and complemented by some notification- and permit-system, so that contact-tracing can be ensured if there is a problem, but so that essential travel is not totally curtailed.

    The imposition of 14-day quarantine on all travellers should be as limited as at all possible and lifted (except for those confirmed to be contagious) as soon as alternative arrangements can be put in place.

  • Posted by interested May 08, 2020 at 20:16

    It seems people need to brush up on what is essential. We are being asked to do extra ordinary things in extraordinary time. It is essential to see family-normally but things are not normal and we have to work with what we have. No point sitting here in lockdown then allowing all and sundry to waltz in and overwhelm our NHS when we have sacrificed normality in order to prevent just that.
    According to an mp I wrote to recently he was pleased to tell me up to 10,000 people from outside the EU were being readied to come to assist the horticultural food producers with their harvest. Up to 2500 more than last year he was keen to point out.
    His point being that the government were not funding flights for these workers. Farmers and companies were.
    If government is telling me to stay home and lockdown then we should not be flooding areas with workers from abroad but rather mobilising actively the people in local areas to harvest produce in their local areas. It could be done if it was organised properly
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