"People who holiday abroad shouldn't complain about quarantining"

29 July 2020, 15:58

People who choose to holiday abroad should not complain about having to quarantine for 14 days, this caller told LBC's Shelagh Fogarty.

Earlier this week, the Government imposed a two week quarantine for travellers from Spain, the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands in response to a rise in the country's coronavirus cases.

Caller Christopher told LBC that it is well within a person's right to choose holiday abroad but they "mustn't then complain" about having to quarantine on their return.

He insisted their behaviour should not have to be policed by an officer they should be trusted to stay at home.

"We went through this really awful pandemic, we're not out of it yet, we've still not got down to zero numbers of people with Covid dying in our hospitals.

"I just don't get for one second why these people don't get we're in a pandemic," Christopher said, "all it takes is one person out there to give it to ten people and those ten people to spread it to another ten people and we're back where we started."

Shelagh agreed it does not take a lot for coronavirus to spread exponentially: "But the reality is if infection rates are low in a given country, and social distancing, hand cleaning and mask wearing is observed...then those are massive behavioural differences to how people were behaving in February and March."

Christopher countered that there was an Imperial College study in March which found "super spreaders" had come back from France and Spain.

"We've made a lot of sacrifices to get to where we are right now and we're still going through it," Christopher said, "I know lots of medical doctors who have sacrificed a lot and seen many of their colleagues die.

"It only takes one person."