Thousands of Irish now stuck in UK for holidays
Expats forced to cancel f lights home as lockdown imposed after infections surge
THOUSANDS of Irish people living in the UK have had to cancel plans to spend Christmas with loved ones back home after Boris Johnson put large swathes of England, including London, under draconian Tier 4 Covid restrictions.
The British prime minister made the decision after an alarming jump in cases linked to a new mutant strain of the disease thought to be 70% more infectious than other forms of Covid.
Under the measures, 18 million residents in the south and east of the country are being told to stay at home, while non-essential shops must close and households must not mix, even on Christmas Day.
Travel abroad is also banned, meaning that even though Ireland’s advice on travel to and from the UK has not yet changed, under UK measures Irish people planning to return home must cancel their plans.
Lauren Moore, 24, was one of the last people to make it home yesterday, arriving into Dublin Airport from London just hours before the UK lockdown kicked in.
‘It feels great to be home to see my family and know they’re all right,’ said Lauren, from Ballymun, who took a Covid test and isolated before travelling.
Last night she was relaxing at the family home – which neighbours that of Dubs hero Philly McMahon – with her parents Tommy and Theresa.
There was a massive party for each of the last five years the Dubs won, but not this year.
Lauren said she would have been devastated if she could not travel to see her parents, sister and nephew, as she has not seen her family since last Christmas.
‘It’s obviously quite sad,’ said Lauren, who is a receptionist in London’s Mayfair.‘I would have been devastated, heartbroken. Life’s too short. Next year how do you know if your people are still going to be around the kitchen table?’
And even though her partner stayed in the UK, she said: ‘The Dubs won, it was great news to come home to.’
However, other Irish people have been left stranded with no Christmas preparations done.
‘I don’t have anything here,’ said one Irish woman who had been due to fly home. ‘I’ve bought a few presents that were for family in England. The rest my parents bought and have waiting in Ireland. I don’t have any food in as we were supposed to fly Monday. Luckily the kids are too young to really know what they’re missing out on.’
Yesterday, England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty confirmed that the mutant Covid strain was much more contagious and responsible for the sharp rise in cases being recorded in London and the southeast of England.
Ireland’s Department of Health last night said the strain had not been found in this country. Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, Cillian De Gascun, said ‘hopefully we won’t see it imported over the next couple of weeks’.
But in Britain, Mr Johnson said the new strain could increase the country’s R value by 0.4. Even so, Prof. Whitty stressed there was nothing to suggest the strain, called ‘VUI – 202012/01’, is more deadly or resistant to a vaccine.
In a statement, he said: ‘We have alerted the World Health Organisation and are continuing to analyse the available data to improve our understanding.’ He said that there was no evidence the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, but added ‘urgent work is underway to confirm this’.
Families were last night fleeing areas of England that have been plunged into the tightest restrictions. There were big queues at Heathrow Airport and at London stations as people moved to escape the city before the draconian new rules were imposed at midnight.
‘It feels great to be home to see my family’
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