UKH

So Ms Sturgeon suggests that people crossing the Scottish / English border may need to be screened / quarantined.

I know at least 50 people who live in Scotland but work in England.

How’s that going to work then ?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/29/sturgeon-refuses-to-rule-out-...

I assume in the same way it is working in a number of US states and German provinces. I think Nicola Sturgeon made it clear that such measures would only be taken if necessary, in the event of infection rates rising in England. We've had four consecutive days in Scotland with no deaths and five new cases a day. Largely because we have a strategy of elimination ( moving towards 0 infections). Like New Zealand, Australia, Greece, Germany, Iceland.....the list goes on. That's very good news. And it would be monumentally stupid to jeopardise that progress if things worsen in England by not limiting the risk of that infection spreading to Scotland. I think most of us would welcome Boris Johnson confirming that England will also pursue a strategy of elimination. As opposed to announcing "independence day" on Friday while squeezing out a press up.

I'd presume that they'd not count as visitors if they have a Scottish address.  The other way around perhaps, but if they are travelling for work I imagine there would be an exemption.  

Can we come from Wales please in September if we promise not to stop the car in England en route? 

She hasn't.

Quite. Sturgeon has proposed nothing of the sort. It has come from an academic at Edinburgh University who is one of a number of advisers to the Scottish government.

But hey! ... why let the facts get in the way of an SNP/Sturgeon/Independence BAAAD story.

PS I don't vote SNP, in case anyone was wondering.

We'll I do site work where we're required to be health checked daily before entry.  Not really tricky and prob only adds about 15mins to start if the day - site itself would be over 100 people I'd say.  Simple temperature check + a daily online questionnaire / health declaration.  If you have a high temp then you don't get onsite and would then be expected to isolate as per national guidelines.  A far more practicable way than asking people to quarantine automatically.

I imagine it'd be a similar check if anything  France managed a check system throughout their lockdown sndsand earlydearly stages of easing so definitely doable.  Whether it was 100% testing or random stop and test on key routes would be driven by infection differential I imagine.

Though worth noting that she doesn't say she wants to impose them, just that she won't rule it out at this stage (in response to a journalist's question).  Doesn't seem too unreasonable a position in fairness.

Cheers,

Stu (also very much not an SNP fan!)

Temperature checks are not very effective. Plenty of people who have the virus don't get a temperature and it seems you can be infectious for a while before any symptoms. For a country to use that as a screening method, it would miss infections quite often. I'm not sure what solution there is other than not allowing travel from areas of high risk or some sort of quarantine. 

Maybe reroute the ferry... Holyhead to Stranraer?

Yep this - we have temp checks on arrival however we also don face masks, gloves and apron for the duration of the day (as I believe you do also) - which (when used correctly ; ) certainly reduce the risk. Routine testing is also in use. 
 

I’m not convinced a symptom and temp check is going far enough if distancing and/or PPE isn’t also in place/use 

Aye, I get what you mean but you'll only ever catch symptomatic people with any border checks hence why so many worksites, vessels, offshore facilities have relied on health screening using temperature checks and declarations to limit those coming onsite.  You're better to catch who you can then no-one at all.

Even NHS testing has a 20% return rate of false negatives.  Only way to be sure would be quarantine everyone for 14 days (totally unpractical on an open border with people needing to travel either way for work) or you do what you can with screening.  If someone chooses to lie about having symptoms, or exposure there's virtually nothing you can do given they're also the ones likely to ignore requests to self isolate / quarantine.

Any kind of control for internally in the UK would have to be best endeavors to limit (you'll never eliminate) transmission between areas.  It;ll be interesting to see how the handle the localised outbreaks happening now down south.

We have had a fair amount of success on both our onshore and offshore sites - 0 infections despite working throughout the pandemic so far and moving personnel from all over the UK (knowing they would be checked a few people have dropped off crew changes etc if not feeling well).  You might not catch every case, but you can still catch a lot which might be enough to keep it in check (if even needed).  I could see ferry routes going the same way if infections start spiking on the mainland but not in the isles.

Cheers!

Stu

This made me laugh. 

Warning for NSFW language 

https://m.facebook.com/janeygodleyfanpage/

The link isnt right, its "Nicola needs a camomile tea" that I'm trying to link.