My friends have been 'blogging' on facebook every day. I can confirm that feel the lifeline ot their family waiting for them is crucial.
On arrival at a very quiet Heathrow this morning, those of us that had to come home from a ‘Red List Country’ (RLS) were lead through a special route to the customs official. Already I was starting to feel like I had done something wrong and was about to be put on the naughty step. This feeling only increased as each person/group was given an individual security guard (the same group that provide security for Her Majesty’s Prisons ironically) who marched us through the airport after being handed our passports. Just in case we wanted to make a runner for it, I guess. This gentleman was very kind, and so was his manager who we spoke to about being able to self-quarantine due to the jabs and my Dad’s age. We were then booked in. After getting our luggage we were placed in a cordoned off area in the terminal with about 20 other people. Social distancing gone out the window again. I complained and basically got told to *** off.
On arrival at the hotel:
My father and I are being given paperwork to sign and are being given a military style briefing as to how we will behave. We are also then told we will only be allowed in the car park for 15 minutes each day and only once we have had a negative covid test which would be on Day 2.
After an eternity in the holding area, we were marched to our room. There are security guards sat at the entrance and exit to every corridor and staircase. “Trying to step out of your room will be spotted immediately and you will face the consequences”, we are told. I also remind myself that any attempt to leave the hotel could be met with a £10,000 fine and/or 10 years in jail.
I have been arrested a couple of times in my youth (civilian and military) and I remember how they make you feel like you are going to be punished, quite rightly, for what you have done. The UK Quarantine Hotel protocol gave me those awful feelings all over again. I’m all for containing this virus, but people who contract the virus, or have to travel to areas affected by Covid, are not criminals and should not be treated as such.