There may be a big danger her for UK residents.
As they see infection rates fall dramatically, they are eager to travel abroad. They might not full take account of the fact that infection is more widespread abroad, and that vaccines aren’t 100% effective.
That is, they might underestimate their risk of picking put the infection abroad and having difficulty travelling home.
It looks to me as if it will be August, or possibly even September before COVID is a background issue in Ireland.
We’re being told that we are ontrack to have 80% of the adult population vaccinated with first vaccination by the end of June, but most of those vaccines happen in June, and a LOT of them in the second half of June. So it will be late July before a lot of those have taken effect and well into August before a lot of people get their second vaccination.
dublinpilot wrote:
That is, they might underestimate their risk of picking put the infection abroad and having difficulty travelling home.
That for me is the major obstacle. I don’t want to be stuck somewhere and unable to get on the plane home. I’m unlikely to travel by commercial airline while it still requires testing at either end.
That’s what I’ve been saying for ages 
Any pre-departure-to-back-home test is a potential trap.
It is easy to get around using GA travel, but the practicality will depend on whether there will be some huge fine back home.
The policy on this stuff is shaped to a large extent by the knowledge that people are either stupid or will try to circumvent stuff. One example of the latter is not allowing UK travel to islands which have practically zero virus (Croatia and Greece come to mind)… one could travel to the mainland from there. Another is 2 people I know who got caught in Portugal when it went “red” so they came back via Spain. They drove, so nobody could tell where they were when abroad. And they are determined ideological anti-vaxxers, and they work in a shop…
Peter wrote:
Any pre-departure-to-back-home test is a potential trap.
But what is the alternative?
Just closing my eyes and thinking: “As long as I don’t know that I will infect others during the flight home it’s ok to do so” is a bit childish, isn’t it?
There will always be people who spend more energy into circumventing the regulations rather than into avoiding to get sick – but those people are always there…
On that basis one shuts down all travel for ever.
I’ve been ill after a significant % of airline flights, sometimes spending half a holiday in bed in a hotel. It’s always been a risk.
The practical downside (lots of people dying) is managed by vaccination.
Travelling by GA should be exempt since you won’t infect anybody on the flight
This is very good news. The antibodies last for a very long time. Pfizer also said the other day that they don’t think a 3rd vaccine will be needed, so they must know something too.
I’m not planning to travel to anywhere where I am required to get a test before return. Travelling (by airline) is already not much fun, and this makes it even less fun. If you fail the test, you are now faced with the problem with finding somewhere which will accomodate a covid-positive person.
This is why the Isle of Man never required a test before return, it has always been self isolate on return and get your test done at the TT grandstand. The government explained that it would be pretty unfair to require a test before return and make a citizen potentially have the problem of now finding accomodation for a covid-positive person, instead of self-isolating and taking the test on return. Additionally, a test before return doesn’t mean you didn’t pick up the virus between the test and getting on a human mailing tube potentially stuffed full of people.
Peter wrote:
Travelling by GA should be exempt since you won’t infect anybody on the flight
Absolutely – for GA it doesn’t make a difference if you do the test before departure or after landing.
Peter wrote:
On that basis one shuts down all travel for ever.
Not really – it just depends on how convenient and fast the tests are. In China – and actually all over Asia – it has been common practice for many years that there are Thermoscanners and if you have fever you won’t even be allowed to enter the airport (let alone the flight). Works just fine.
If we had a simple breath test for Covid (and other significant aerosol transferrable diseases) that would be easy as well.
Malibuflyer wrote:
In China – and actually all over Asia – it has been common practice for many years that there are Thermoscanners and if you have fever you won’t even be allowed to enter the airport (let alone the flight). Works just fine.If we had a simple breath test for Covid (and other significant aerosol transferrable diseases) that would be easy as well.
Just doesn’t sound like a world I want to participate in!
Don’t forget you can test positive many weeks or even months after infection with sensitive PCR tests, not a problem with pragmatic medical staff. Big problems perhaps dealing with bureaucrats. 
Ted wrote:
Don’t forget you can test positive many weeks or even months after infection with sensitive PCR tests,
This is a challenge with every test and every rule. Yes, one has always false positives and we need to establish procedures that these false positives can be handled adequately. That does, however, not invalidate the general rule (as long as these false positives are not too many).
There are some people that are better at flying planes at 1.5g/l than I am when sober – I do, however, appreciate that there is the rule of no flying under influence and also that compliance is eventually checked even without having had an accident.
