Under what situations might I be forced to quarantine while in the UK, if I am vaccinated outside the UK?
I'm from Singapore, and have been fully vaccinated with Pfizer/BioNTech in Singapore, and am likely to get a booster shot in Singapore in early January 2022 before I travel. I'm intending to travel to the UK as a tourist.
The UK accepts Singaporean vaccination certificates for entry into the UK, and hence I will not be required to quarantine at all, and will just need to take a Day 2 test (which apparently can be done at Heathrow Airport immediately after arrival).
The NHS has a contact tracing system, and they will notify you if you are a close contact of an infected individual. However, the NHS disregards vaccines administered outside the UK, and hence will treat me as an unvaccinated individual. This means that I will be required to isolate for ten days. This interpretation is supported by this article (in Norwegian), and TripAdvisor forum posts such as this one.
I know that they perform contact tracing with information from at least two sources:
- Seat assignment on the inbound flight into the UK
- The NHS track and trace app
I can minimise being a close contact on the flight by selecting a seat as far as possible from other passengers (flights from Singapore to the UK seem mostly empty in economy these days). It also seems that the NHS app is not mandatory, and apparently it is not required for entry into restaurants, museums, transport, and other indoor spaces either, so it doesn't seem like I will need to download it anyway. (Is this correct?)
So by question is: What other sources of information does the NHS contact tracing system use, and how might I minimise the probability of being quarantined while in the UK?
(Alternatively, if there is any information on how to get the NHS to treat me as a vaccinated individual, that would be a great answer too.)
Best Answer
The UK rules changed in December to remove the oddity that people vaccinated abroad might be legally required to self-isolate in circumstances where people vaccinated in the UK wouldn't be required to:
(Announced on 19 November, so after your question was posted but coming into effect well before your planned trip.)
So the answer to the alternative part of your question, about how to get the UK contact tracing system to treat you as a fully vaccinated, is simply to wait until December.
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Answer 2
Anyone who qualifies as fully vaccinated does not have to self-isolate unless:
they arrived via a red list country (currently none on the list)
their Day 2 test result is positive
they are not exempt from self-isolation as a contact because their vaccine was not administered in the UK, and are notified by NHS Test and Trace that they have been identified as a close contact and/or have tested positive for COVID-19. This is a legal requirement.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-to-england-from-another-country-during-coronavirus-covid-19 and https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-test-and-trace-how-it-works
You may need to demonstrate your Covid status while in the UK. The NHS app (or devolved administration equivalent) is the means of doing so https://www.nhsx.nhs.uk/covid-19-response/how-to-use-the-nhs-app-to-demonstrate-your-nhs-covid-pass-in-england/ Restaurants, bars etc may require you to ‘check in’ using their QR code https://faq.covid19.nhs.uk/article/KA-01183/en-us. Other sources of contact-tracing information for Test and Trace include, for example:
- friends you spend time with/people you’re staying with who test positive and are contacted by Test and Trace
- if/when you make any bookings eg entry to tourist attractions, you will typically be asked for contact details.
- if you need to visit a hospital for medical treatment
You can check the local infection level for the postcode(s) areas where you’ll be staying while in the UK via the tool at the bottom of the UK’s official Covid data website https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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