I'm really sorry to hear this. I have read just this week that up to 75% of people that get "mild"covid suffer from long covid. I don't understand the complacency and it make me angry. I really hope she fully recovers. Looking after young kids is hard enough , without this terrible illness. Also the UK does not recognize it as a disability yet, which makes it even harder.

We're obviously talking at cross purposes and there's something I'm not getting across clearly so I'm going to bow out now.

Lansbury - I imagine that working in BRI A&E is a challenge at the best of times, your DiL has my sympathies. I remember fearing for my own life late one Friday night when I took a friend in.

I am fault too.

I'd be wary of getting on a flight these days myself or any mode of transportation that isn't self enclosed away from others, so basically unless I am in a private vehicle alone or with my spouse, no travel for me.

I wont even take public transit at the moment.

Thank you both. I am amazed she hasn't been ill before now. She is in charge of the nursing staff on a shift and leads from the front. I've meet most of them on visits and they are an incredible bunch, who all worked long hours when the department was swamped with COVID cases early on.

Sorry to hear about your DIL, and here's to as fast and full a recovery as possible.

How do the authorities even know that you are quarantining when you arrive in England after you give them the address you will be staying at? Also, are you supposed to quarantine back in the US for 14 days when you arrive back here? Again, how do the authorities here even know that you are quarantining here on arrival? And what if you have to get back to work when you get back.

I am leaning toward not going now, especially that the UK is introducing another lockdown soon, but still curious as to how it all works. God knows when I will ever get back now.
I am aware of the direct flight from EWR to MAN with United, which is best with a preschooler and I have used that flight several times in the past, but it is pricy.now.

I have not searched for a flight in since my trip to Europe back in Feb, I went to see elderly family then knowing what was coming (even then I was already having issues buying masks and Lysol wipes for the trip, I was transiting thought İstanbul the day all China flights were canceled) I highly doubt UA is operating a direct EWR-MAN with these loads, searching a few random dates in December show everything via Germany on LH. I normally fly enough UA to keep 1K every year. Even if they are running it they used 757’s on that route when I have flown it and they are a single isle narrow body, so that would not be an ideal aircraft at the moment.

Tracking could be from spot checks, cellphone tracking, monitoring in person payments, I doubt they will publicize what they are doing. But if people do feel the need to travel and risk peoples lives I hope they are held financially and criminally liable if they break the rules that are there to safeguard vulnerable parts of the population.

I can’t really think of any reason I would travel now, the only one I could possibly think of would be to take my family to NZ ( I have no family there) if things got really bad here (they mange / enforce quarantine, which is the way they should do it everywhere). But the risk of flying on a connecting commercial flight would make the bar for even considering that really high.

The UK government has now introduced fines up to £10,000 for folks who do not self-isolate as instructed or advised to do so. This follows a returning traveller who caused a big spike in infections in Bolton last week. I don't know if or how they will actively track folks ongoing who are supposed to be self isolating but hopefully the threat of large fines will make some folks think twice about breaking the rules.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-didnt-isolate

We had a couple of EWR to MAN flights booked over the summer but United stopped flights into MAN. They rebooked us on to LHR flights but we chose to cancel because didn’t want to risk catching Covid and then possibly passing it onto others, especially our very elderly parents. We have family come over here every Christmas but this year we’ll have to make do with Zoom instead. No flying anywhere for us for the foreseeable future.

I guess it doesn't matter, as the goal here is not to avoid getting caught but instead to avoid causing harm to others.

In Scotland they just banned / discouraged visiting anyone other than your immediate family. Would kind of kill the point of traveling.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-54254694

We have a mandatory trip to Asia next Summer but other than that we have put off all travel. Will stay home for Christmas.

I can only speak for what happens in New York State. I was required to voluntarily comply with a request to quarantine, otherwise they would have obtained a court order. Penalties are stiff, imprisonment or a hefty fine. The Covid team at my county health department checked in on me by phone twice a day for fourteen days. Presumably if they had any suspicion I’d broken the terms of the quarantine they’d have sent the police around to check up on me.

All the best to your DIL; I wish her a full and speedy recovery. My sister (whom I lost in May, and whose funeral I attended via video link to avoid risk to myself and the family from picking up germs traveling to the UK) was the senior staff nurse in casualty (as they called it in those days) at the BRI during the smallpox outbreak in the early sixties.

To the OP, now is not the time to think about being in the UK for Christmas. Quarantining shouldn't mean staying in a room at your family home, it should mean being isolated in a hotel room. Once you travel, you bring the risk of infection to those you love at both ends of the trip.

Sorry to read about your DIL Mr L. Medical staff are continuously putting themselves at great risk during this time. I hope she makes a full recovery soon.