Don't bend the quarantine rules when you travel, just be canny about where you spend your 14 days
It’s not often Kanye West and Tony Blair are mentioned in the same breath but over the last ten days they’ve both been hitting the headlines for the same reason: they have been accused of breaching the UK’s current 14-day quarantine laws.
This feels particularly grating for the rest of us now there are so few places left we can travel to without having to self-isolate when we get home (and that number is continuing to shrink).
West, who was spotted in Los Angeles and then just a couple of days later at a Bottega Veneta fashion show at Sadler’s Wells in London with his seven-year-old daughter North, was then seen going into The Dorchester on Park Lane, coming out of fashion designer Michiko Koshino’s sushi restaurant Michiko Sushino in Queen’s Park and shopping at Dover Street Market in Mayfair.
According to government guidelines, certain jobs qualify for exemption from self-isolation, which could include, one supposes, being a representative of a foreign country as an active US presidential candidate (they did wear those ‘Vote Kanye’ sweatshirts a couple of times).
It is not certain that he breached quarantine laws but he has yet to respond to accusations.
It was then reported in The Sunday Telegraph that Blair was spotted emerging from lunch at Harry’s Bar in Mayfair just ten days after returning from a trip to Washington DC, where he’d gone to attend an event in which Israel signed an agreement establishing formal relations with Bahrain and the UAE, which he had played a part in negotiating.
Exemptions can be granted to diplomatic staff at international bodies and formal representatives but Blair is now a private citizen so no longer eligible. It’s alleged he appealed to Whitehall officials for special dispensation from quarantine, but it is not clear whether he received the formal exemption letter. A spokesperson for Mr Blair described the ceremony as a diplomatic conference and that he had been advised to follow rules regarding the attendance of international conferences, which they say he did.
But aren’t we used to all this by now? While it probably still seems like yesterday to the residents of Rock, Cornwall, it feels like a lifetime ago to the rest of us that Gordon Ramsay was first in the dog house with, well, everyone who lives there year-round, for moving his entire family down to Cornwall to live in one of his several holiday homes for lockdown, despite the government’s plea for everyone to stay in their actual homes.
Over in Australia, we’ve heard about a number of celebrities entering the country being granted exemption from having to spend the compulsory 14-day quarantine in a state-approved hotel, including Nicole Kidman and her husband Keith Urban, who were allowed to head straight to their AUS$6.5 Million Southern Highlands Estate to self-isolate there. After a public outcry, Kidman’s publicist said they had paid for their own security and were isolating as per law.
But there’s good news. For those of us who don’t actually want to break the law, there are ways to have fun, especially where travelling between the UK and the US is concerned. Those heading to the US might consider the new 14-day quarantine package at the Lowell Hotel on New York’s Upper East Side, where you get an exclusive rate (from US$785 per night) with daily breakfast included, housekeeping tailored to your individual requirements and the option of in-room delivery of delicious lunches and dinners from the hotel’s celebrated seasonal French restaurant, Majorelle.
Or, in another inspired life hack when travelling between the two countries, why not do your 14-day quarantine at Cobbler’s Cove in Barbados (from approximately £5,771 per person, including transfers, airport FastTrack and the hotel Covid test), cutting out the need to quarantine at your final destination? Armed with a negative test (taken three days before travel), the protocol for entry to Barbados is painless.
Once you land on the island, you are whisked straight to the hotel, where you take another test in the comfort of your room. On receiving your same-day negative results, you are free to move around the island as much as you wish. Sound too good to be true? There are regular fully-refundable flights to Bridgetown from both the UK and the USA and Virgin Atlantic is offering comprehensive travel insurance free of charge.
Oh hang on, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has just announced he is ‘hopeful’ that testing for international travellers could be implemented by 1 December, which could cut quarantine from 14 days to one week and – sigh - shatter my dreams for a two-week holiday in the Caribbean.
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