Coronavirus: When will I be able to fly to New York to see my family?

Simon Calder answers your questions on American holidays and getting around the quarantine list

The Big Apple and the rest of the US is currently off-limits to British citizens (Getty/iStock)

Q My daughter lives in upstate New York and has just given birth. We haven’t seen her since December last year and are desperate to do so. Usually we are there six weeks a year, and she here. Is there any chance I can fly to see her.

Suzanne F

A “The potential for undetected transmission of the virus by infected individuals seeking to enter the United States from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland threatens the security of our transportation system and infrastructure and the national security.” So wrote Donald Trump in a presidential proclamation on 14 March 2020. Almost six months later the edict remains in force, even though (by the weekend’s figures) coronavirus is six times more prevalent in the US than the UK.

At present only “American citizens, legal permanent residents, and their immediate families who are returning home” are allowed to travel from Britain to the US (as well as individuals such as Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage whose presence in the US is regarded as advantageous to Americans).

Assuming you have no friends in high places, you are in the same position as hundreds of thousands of people deprived of seeing loved ones on the other side of the Atlantic.

I cannot see Donald Trump’s proclamation, which now looks absurd, being revoked this side of the November presidential election. Every move the American leader makes is aimed at shoring up his support base. Being tough on foreigners – even grandmothers like you – trying to enter the US is seen as an important element.

I predict that once the election is over, the travel ban will be lifted quickly by whoever wins to alleviate the immense and unnecessary emotional and economic harm it is causing. But that is still eight weeks away. Until then, one way in is to go to a country such as a Caribbean island where British visitors are allowed in; to stay there for two weeks; and then travel on to the US. This, though, would be expensive and cumbersome.

With several daily flights between London and New York it makes more sense to go direct. If your daughter feels able to travel, she can fly any day to the UK. She will be required to quarantine for two weeks on arrival, presumably at your home, but that may not feel especially onerous for a new mother.

Q Simon, can you settle a dispute: a colleague drives across France without stopping. They gets on ferry at Calais and return to the UK. Do they still have to isolate for 14 days?

Neil C

A I can happily settle your dispute, though your colleague will not like the answer – and it is regrettable that the government does not seem to have addressed this straightforward question.

Instead, the online information is a kind of riddle that, with the help of the Department for Transport (DfT), I have been able to solve.

First, the background. All the continental countries with direct ferry connections from the UK – that’s France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain – are on the government’s must-quarantine list. That means anyone in those countries who travels to the UK must self-isolate for two weeks on return.

There are two basic exceptions to this rule. The first is that if you leave the UK again, you can stop self-isolating. The second is if you have passed through in transit and have not made a stop in which “someone gets out of the vehicle, mixes with other people and gets in again”.

Your colleague could plan to drive straight across France from, say, the German city of Saarbrucken – a four-hour drive to Dunkerque. Stopping at a self-service petrol station appears to be permitted. But unfortunately the DfT says that the damage will be done after reaching the ferry. After driving on to the car deck, for safety reasons he or she will be required to leave the vehicle and walk to the passenger deck.

He or she will be deemed to be mixing with other people while in France and therefore liable to two weeks sitting at home.

There is, however, an easy – though expensive – work around: taking Eurotunnel from Calais to Folkestone. The shuttle train allows the driver and passengers to remain in the car until arriving in Kent. At this point your colleague can happily go to the pub and celebrate avoiding quarantine.

Q We travel back from the lovely Portuguese Algarve to our home in England tomorrow, so no quarantine rules will apply. However, our grandson lives in Wales and we would like to see him later in the week. Are we allowed to visit, or do we have to wait 14 days?

Jayne W

A The quarantine system – imposing self-isolation for two weeks for arrivals from certain countries – has begun to fragment between the four nations of the UK, which is leading to all manner of inconsistencies and internal travel restrictions.

Because of the increasing number of recorded coronavirus cases, Portugal has been put on the high-risk list by Scotland and Wales (though the latter does not insist on quarantine for arrivals from Madeira and the Azores). In contrast, England and Northern Ireland regard Portugal as low-risk.

Welsh residents who have travelled to a destination on the quarantine list in the past two weeks must self-isolate for 14 days (counted from the day when they were last in the offending country). The government in Wales says: “If you are arriving from elsewhere in the UK having been in a non-exempt country in the last 14 days … upon your arrival in Wales you will need to isolate for the balance of the 14 days.”

So you would need to go straight into quarantine once you arrived at your grandson’s residence.

The Welsh government adds: “If you arrived in an exempt country or territory [such as England] five days before you then travelled to Wales the travel regulations would require you to isolate for nine days upon your arrival.”

Yet the law, with the laborious title The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (Wales) Regulations 2020, says that if you leave Wales, “an isolation requirement ceases to apply”.

Were you to say, effectively, “We’re going to self-isolate at our grandson’s home for the day, follow the rules there and then leave Wales later the same day,” it is difficult to see that you would be behaving illegally. But the spirit of the law is clearly that no one who has been in Portugal should be roaming around Wales, and I suggest you respect that.

Email your question to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder