Iona - COVID Testing Changes

[Pippa04]

I would imagine that for all the people who are delighted at the ending of testing there will be a significant number who booked on the understanding that testing would be mandatory and will not be happy.  Obviously this day had to come at some point but I hope those people are treated with more consideration than those who got moved for quarantine cabin purposes. 

[jeanlyon]

I think it's a good move.  However, I haven't heard about a new wave?

[crazy cat lady 83]

4 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

I think it's a good move.  However, I haven't heard about a new wave?

In yesterdays news they advised the new wave has started and the NHS are extremely worried. In todays news they have completely back tracked and there’s nothing to be concerned about 🤣

[zap99]

On 6/21/2022 at 5:54 PM, Selbourne said:

Let’s hope that it is successful then, as it’s another positive step towards normality. 
 

With Iona doing prolonged runs of 7 night cruises, where most people who pick up Covid are unlikely to become symptomatic until they return home (if at all), I am struggling to see why quarantine zones are needed. Is this being reviewed? We will be cancelling our Iona cruise next year if they are still being maintained, as we aren’t able to relocate to an alternative cabin that would be acceptable to us. 

HAL have dropped the precruise testing for 3 cruises to Norway from Amsterdam in July. Things may be changing.

[molecrochip]

So a little more background to this. Iona (P&O) is the first ship to trial, with Rotterdam (HAL) being the second ship to trial.

 

There are a number of similarities. Essentially, all the cruises go to Norway, who have provided their agreement for the trial. (One HAL cruise also calls in the UK). The cruises also return to home ports (Southampton/Amsterdam) where there is no inbound testing/vaccine requirement.

 

The purpose is to collect data to support removing the testing mandate altogether. Can it be shown that without testing, Covid onboard is no worse then with testing? To support this, I would expect there will be cruises following the tests which revert to mandatory testing. As the before and after provide control data (in an ever moving field).

 

Additionally, the trials stop before the main school holidays when unvaccinated numbers rocket, although its worth noting a lot of the "unvaccinated" kids will have had their first jab now as the 5+ program started in April.

 

In other, but related news, all brands operating out of the UK have now aligned their vaccination policies. Princess had required vaccinations for 5+ but, in line with Cunard an P&O, have changed this to 12+. Testing requirements still vary.

 

 

[Dermotsgirl]

11 hours ago, molecrochip said:

So a little more background to this. Iona (P&O) is the first ship to trial, with Rotterdam (HAL) being the second ship to trial.

 

There are a number of similarities. Essentially, all the cruises go to Norway, who have provided their agreement for the trial. (One HAL cruise also calls in the UK). The cruises also return to home ports (Southampton/Amsterdam) where there is no inbound testing/vaccine requirement.

 

The purpose is to collect data to support removing the testing mandate altogether. Can it be shown that without testing, Covid onboard is no worse then with testing? To support this, I would expect there will be cruises following the tests which revert to mandatory testing. As the before and after provide control data (in an ever moving field).

 

Additionally, the trials stop before the main school holidays when unvaccinated numbers rocket, although its worth noting a lot of the "unvaccinated" kids will have had their first jab now as the 5+ program started in April.

 

In other, but related news, all brands operating out of the UK have now aligned their vaccination policies. Princess had required vaccinations for 5+ but, in line with Cunard an P&O, have changed this to 12+. Testing requirements still vary.

 

 

As the selected cruises are of short duration, the Covid situation on the ship may well not be very different, testing or not, as Covid 19 takes a few days to develop and I doubt if they’ll monitor people after the cruise. Perhaps they also need to do the same trial on two week cruises, although not sure if it’s even fair to treat passengers as Guinea pigs when the current Covid wave is still increasing. 
 

 

[crazy cat lady 83]

One of my friends has just come back from a holiday in Portugal. I can’t remember who she flew with but there was no vaccination proof needed or a covid test. Another is flying to Majorca this week and again, no COVID test needed. Now that would concern me. Sitting next to someone for 3-4 hours and them having it. No thank you! 

[zap99]

34 minutes ago, crazy cat lady 83 said:

One of my friends has just come back from a holiday in Portugal. I can’t remember who she flew with but there was no vaccination proof needed or a covid test. Another is flying to Majorca this week and again, no COVID test needed. Now that would concern me. Sitting next to someone for 3-4 hours and them having it. No thank you! 

People are flying all around the world now with no testing, out and back. That's the risk you take. Join in, or don't. 

[wowzz]

36 minutes ago, crazy cat lady 83 said:

Sitting next to someone for 3-4 hours and them having it

In an aircraft with a far better air filtration system than in a coach, train, restaurant, pub etc.

Flying is the least of your worries !

[wowzz]

38 minutes ago, crazy cat lady 83 said:

. I can’t remember who she flew with but there was no vaccination proof needed or a covid test.

Makes no difference who the carrier is. Portugal, like most of the world, no longer require entry tests, if you are fully vaccinated.

[crazy cat lady 83]

Very true. We have had it and I don’t know many who haven’t had it. I’ve never been worried about catching it. I worked closely with the public throughout when everyone else was at home in lockdown. I’m more worried about suddenly having to isolate when your away, either on a cruise or in a hotel. As long as there is no testing AT ALL then I’m more than happy to travel.

[Yorkypete]

15 hours ago, molecrochip said:

So a little more background to this. Iona (P&O) is the first ship to trial, with Rotterdam (HAL) being the second ship to trial.

 

There are a number of similarities. Essentially, all the cruises go to Norway, who have provided their agreement for the trial. (One HAL cruise also calls in the UK). The cruises also return to home ports (Southampton/Amsterdam) where there is no inbound testing/vaccine requirement.

 

The purpose is to collect data to support removing the testing mandate altogether. Can it be shown that without testing, Covid onboard is no worse then with testing? To support this, I would expect there will be cruises following the tests which revert to mandatory testing. As the before and after provide control data (in an ever moving field).

 

Additionally, the trials stop before the main school holidays when unvaccinated numbers rocket, although its worth noting a lot of the "unvaccinated" kids will have had their first jab now as the 5+ program started in April.

 

In other, but related news, all brands operating out of the UK have now aligned their vaccination policies. Princess had required vaccinations for 5+ but, in line with Cunard an P&O, have changed this to 12+. Testing requirements still vary.

 

 

Your info on children being tested is not quite 100% accurate. My grandson is 12 and has had covid twice after moving to senior school, and only about ten weeks apart.. The local senior schools have now said the vaccinations for 12 year old and over has now stopped (virtually before it even started!) and therefor no young people in the area will have the vaccination. Certainly there is no procedure for 5+ children to have it..

[crazy cat lady 83]

6 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

Your info on children being tested is not quite 100% accurate. My grandson is 12 and has had covid twice after moving to senior school, and only about ten weeks apart.. The local senior schools have now said the vaccinations for 12 year old and over has now stopped (virtually before it even started!) and therefor no young people in the area will have the vaccination. Certainly there is no procedure for 5+ children to have it..

Our schools were the same. My 12 year old only had covid once and we assumed it was Omicron. We knew others who got it twice and seemed to be different variants as it was when each strain was rife. We also noticed in this area how it started off hitting the senior school first and then wiping them out, then the juniors and then hit the infants. Infecting parents and other family members on the way! Luckily none were particularly poorly.

My 12 year old has had both of her jabs and my 10 year old has had his but we had to arrange it all through the NHS website and travel quite away. There was nothing close by.

[picsa]

On 6/21/2022 at 6:54 PM, Selbourne said:

With Iona doing prolonged runs of 7 night cruises, where most people who pick up Covid are unlikely to become symptomatic until they return home (if at all), I am struggling to see why quarantine zones are needed.

If you remove all the quarantine zones and don’t require passengers to test before boarding, then what do you do with those passengers who become unwell during the voyage and test positive then?

 

Let them continue to roam the ship and infect everyone else?

 

Lock them in their cabin for the duration? The point with the quarantine zones is most passengers were happy to be moved to the quarantine zone because they are nice balcony cabins with room to move for the week you are stuck there. 

[molecrochip]

9 hours ago, Yorkypete said:

Your info on children being tested is not quite 100% accurate. My grandson is 12 and has had covid twice after moving to senior school, and only about ten weeks apart.. The local senior schools have now said the vaccinations for 12 year old and over has now stopped (virtually before it even started!) and therefor no young people in the area will have the vaccination. Certainly there is no procedure for 5+ children to have it..

My information is correct. 12+ must be vaccinated. P&O said:

 

"All guests aged 12 to 15 years need to be fully vaccinated* with an approved COVID-19 vaccine a minimum of 14 days prior to travel. A booster vaccine is not required."

 

School vaccinations stopped in April 2022 when the NHS vaccination program took over vaccinating 5+ as there was slack in the system. Details on how to book are here:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-for-children/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-for-children-aged-5-to-15/

 

[Yorkypete]

1 hour ago, molecrochip said:

My information is correct. 12+ must be vaccinated. P&O said:

 

"All guests aged 12 to 15 years need to be fully vaccinated* with an approved COVID-19 vaccine a minimum of 14 days prior to travel. A booster vaccine is not required."

 

School vaccinations stopped in April 2022 when the NHS vaccination program took over vaccinating 5+ as there was slack in the system. Details on how to book are here:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-for-children/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-for-children-aged-5-to-15/

 

I did not say your P&O requirements are wrong. The schools have stopped the vaccinations. At my grandsons school there are very few children aged 12 vaccinated, nor were any vaccines offered at his previous junior school. I am sure that private vaccinations are available at a cost but local doctors are not doing them anymore, at least in our area.

 

[Snow Hill]

7 hours ago, Yorkypete said:

I did not say your P&O requirements are wrong. The schools have stopped the vaccinations. At my grandsons school there are very few children aged 12 vaccinated, nor were any vaccines offered at his previous junior school. I am sure that private vaccinations are available at a cost but local doctors are not doing them anymore, at least in our area.

 

My youngest granddaughter was offered and given the vaccine via GP surgery in early May. There are 4 drop in clinics operating in my local authority area giving vaccinations to 5+ thru to 75+ , nationally according to NHS figures around 18,000 people were vaccinated last week, with either 1st, 2nd or booster doses. 

 

 

[Yorkypete]

4 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

My youngest granddaughter was offered and given the vaccine via GP surgery in early May. There are 4 drop in clinics operating in my local authority area giving vaccinations to 5+ thru to 75+ , nationally according to NHS figures around 18,000 people were vaccinated last week, with either 1st, 2nd or booster doses. 

 

 

Must be an area thing then.

[Muckyduckway]

We were on the first Iona cruise to sail without a LFT requirement. We got off the ship on Saturday. Symptoms appeared on Sunday and we both tested positive.

We were among a handful of people who continued to mask while moving around the ship indoors, and we used FFP2 masks. We took the usual precautions that kept us covid-free until now.

If we got it, there must be hundreds maybe many hundreds more.  There were certainly a lot people with symptoms. They will simply not be recorded in P&O's experiment.

For background, this was our fourth cruise since October 2021, the others were with NCL who did require preboard tests and masking indoors. This is the first time we have had Covid.

 

 

[Angel57]

Oh no. So sorry to hear you have caught Covid.

Sadly what you say does not surprise me.

I hope you feel better soon.

 

[Froxfield]

I always understood that masks did not offer that much protection to the wearer.  If anything they help to prevent the spread of virus from those already infected. I sincerely hope you are not seriously ill as a result of your infection. 

[Josy1953]

16 hours ago, molecrochip said:

My information is correct. 12+ must be vaccinated. P&O said:

 

"All guests aged 12 to 15 years need to be fully vaccinated* with an approved COVID-19 vaccine a minimum of 14 days prior to travel. A booster vaccine is not required."

 

School vaccinations stopped in April 2022 when the NHS vaccination program took over vaccinating 5+ as there was slack in the system. Details on how to book are here:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-for-children/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-for-children-aged-5-to-15/

 

 is true that is what the NHS site says but I know from volunteering that in this area it is not easy to get children vaccinated.  The pharmacy where I have been volunteering is having to turn away people who have booked for their children to be vaccinated because the NHS site allows them to book even though there is no-one there who is CRB checked and so there is no-one allowed to vaccinate under 16s.

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, Yorkypete said:

Must be an area thing then.

Have you followed through on the procedure outlined in the link in post #40?

[Yorkypete]

3 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Have you followed through on the procedure outlined in the link in post #40?

 

3 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Have you followed through on the procedure outlined in the link in post #40?

There seems to be a lot of confusion at present, as usual with these NHS postings/info. In our area Doctors are so busy that they are not offering vaccines now. Pharmacies have not the staff to do these or tests. Hospitals are so overwhelmed that even people with serious illnesses have to wait several hours to see anyone so hospitals are not doing it.It is easy to refer to NHS posts but a damn site harder to actually do anything.. Both myself and my wife have had three vaccinations but no sign of the second booster being available in the next few months meanwhile the number of local cases is shooting through the roof as the new wave hits us. Anyone who believes covid is over is  either stupid or cares little for his fellow man.

 

[Muckyduckway]

4 hours ago, Froxfield said:

I always understood that masks did not offer that much protection to the wearer.  If anything they help to prevent the spread of virus from those already infected. I sincerely hope you are not seriously ill as a result of your infection. 

Cloth and medical masks offer little protection to the wearer but FFP2 masks offer two way protection. Thank you for your well-wishes, I too hope for a good outcome.