Close-contact rules?

I doubt that you have the NHS Track and Trace app on your phone which is the method many people in the UK are 'pinged' and which the advice to self isolate is only a recommendation rather than a legal requirement. If you are contacted by a member of the Track and Trace team rather than via the app then it is a legal requirement to isolate for ten days, however, fully vaccinated adults do not need to self isolate/quarantine.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/if-youre-told-to-self-isolate-by-nhs-test-and-trace-or-the-covid-19-app/

From what I can see on the U.K. government website, people double vaccinated by the NHS do not have to isolate for 10 days, but I can’t find any reference to those vaccinated abroad.

You will need to complete a passenger locator form with a contact number, so you could be pinged. If you had been vaccinated by the NHS, you wouldn’t necessarily have to isolate, but it’s recommended that you get a PCR test to show that you are negative - cost around £70pp and you should avoid crowds, the elderly and others at risk. If you are positive or catch Covid whilst here, you won’t be allowed to return home until you have quarantined for 10 days at your own cost. Self isolation means that you should stay in your accommodation and not leave even for exercise and you should minimise contact with others, so an apartment would be better than a hotel and your food could be delivered from a supermarket.

Frank and others have recently visited the U.K. and been ok. It’s all about your risk threshold and flexibility, if required, to extend your trip.

I entered the UK twice in five weeks. Took two Day 2 tests. Tested negative on both. I'm here until the first of the year.

The chances of you being contacted is slim. But there is a chance. The only way is if someone on your plane has it. But everyone on the plane will be vaccinated. Once you arrive, they have no way of knowing what you are doing. If you visit the Snail and Groundhog pub, and someone there tests positive, how is the government going to know you were there? They don't track your every move.

Is there a chance something could happen? Sure, but there is a chance a lot of things could happen.

Yes, people on your plane will have been vaccinated, but the only people that I know have tested positive recently have all been double vaccinated and one has spent time in ICU with Covid related breathing difficulties. It’s a slim chance, but it’s not a zero chance of being infected.

My sister-In-law in the uk who is double jabbed caught it from her teenage daughter. She wasn’t severely affected (like a cold) but she still had to isolate as her daughter tested positive through a test done for (high) school and then the rest of the family then tested themselves. Please test yourselves if you develop cold symptoms as Covid break-through symptoms for most people (if any) due to Delta variant more resemble a cold that the previous reported symptoms.

Thank you all for these very helpful comments. And yes, the question really is just whether I want to take the chance of someone on my flight testing positive and then I'd have to quarantine because I wasn't vaccinated by the NHS. Which of course we would do but that's not exactly how I'd hoped to spend my time off from work. And Covid is getting worse day by day - certainly that's the case where I am in the US. So I'm starting to think I'll just stay 49 for another year and hope that I can celebrate 50 in London in 2022! Thanks again.

Hi SPJ16

I understand how it feels not to celebrate a big birthday in the way that you plan. I turned 50 in the summer and for the last couple of years I had planned to spend my birthday week in my first visit to Tallin Estonia where my father’s maternal family came from but as the Covid pandemic developed, I realised that I would rather visit close family in Italy that I already knew but the situation further deteriorated at the end of 2020 and start of 2021 in the uk and although the lockdown restrictions were beginning to ease at the start of this summer, it still looked too uncertain to travel overseas. Therefore I celebrated my birthday “week” in the uk with my immediate family but will have a second 50th birthday next year in Italy when circumstances best allow it

I have a two week trip planned for April and that article alarmed me too. I just wanted to let you know as of December 1st that policy has been changed. Sajid Jarvid announced that - “From December anyone fully vaccinated with a WHO EUL vaccine will not need to self-isolate if identified as a close contact while in England.”

https://twitter.com/sajidjavid/status/1461413075463061516?s=21

A big sigh of relief for me and I hope for you as well.

OH that's wonderful news - thank you for sharing!! I hadn't cancelled anything yet, as I'd heard there may be some policy changes coming at the end of November. And I was coming around to the idea that someone else shared above - that there's risk in everything. So I was leaning toward taking the trip and this just confirms that. I hope everything is works out for your April trip - good luck!! And thank you again for sharing this news!

You will have to isolate if you test positive.