Quarantine Latest

Posted in News, tagged with COVID-19, on December 10, 2020

Please see below a summary of what you need to know about quarantining when coming into, or returning to England (in this guidance any reference to coming into England also refers to people returning to England), including the latest provisions. We reference England throughout rather than the UK, because this legislation does not automatically apply to the devolved nations.

The Current Position:

1. Travel corridor countries
If you come to England from a travel corridor country listed HERE – you do NOT need to quarantine.

2. Non-travel corridor countries
If you come to England from a non-travel corridor country then you have to quarantine for 14 days.

3. The advertising exemption
A director, DoP or actor (which we interpret to mean anyone appearing on screen who is directed, in any audio visual advertising) must quarantine for 14 days along with everyone else arriving in England from a non-travel corridor country, but they are allowed to leave quarantine to attend a confirmed filming location, to then return to quarantine once shooting is finished. 
Further APA Guidance HERE.

4. The NEW music video exemption
The latest exemptions (published by the Government, dated 3rd December 2020) “permit a music video performer” to leave quarantine to go to a confirmed filming location. This applies to the artist if they are appearing in the video and anyone else appearing in it.
It does NOT apply to music video Directors / DoPs or any crew.

Up-coming Changes:

1. Test to Release

As of 15th December 2020, someone arriving into England must quarantine for a period of 14 days, except if they quarantine for at least five days and then get a COVID test which results in a negative. They may then end quarantine. This is a significant step forward and would enable everyone you bring into England to be out of quarantine after five days, provided they have a negative test result.

How it works 

  • Pay for a private COVID test 5 FULL days after you left the destination not featured on the travel corridor list. 
    • For example, if you leave a destination not on the travel corridor list at 11am on Monday, Tuesday will be your first full day. You can take a test no earlier than your fifth full day of self-isolation – Saturday. You must continue to self-isolate until you receive your test result. 
    • See graphic illustrating different scenarios at bottom of this email. 
  • You must book a test through a GOV.UK recommended private provider (not published yet).
  • Book before you travel to England – you have to enter the details of the test on your passenger locator form. You can opt-in after arriving in England, but you will need to complete another passenger locator form.
  • A test brought with the traveller from overseas or taken within the first four days of arrival does not qualify because of the incubation period.
  • You can’t use a NHS Test and Trace result, you have to pay for a private test. You can be fined if you use a negative Test and Trace result. 
  • It also applies to work-related quarantine exemptions e.g. if a UK-based Director returns from a shoot abroad and needs to prep for another shoot etc, they could end quarantine if they tested negative after 5 days. 

2. Business directors bringing jobs and investment to the UK

This does not help or apply to APA members.

We are including it because some of you have asked about it following the Govt’s first announced that people doing high value transactions would be exempt (at the time they didn’t give details of what that meant). Later the Govt stated that transactions with a value of £100k would be eligible. This was a mis-quote. They meant at least £100 million.

People are only exempt if the business activity requires their physical presence and can’t be done remotely.

“Significant economic benefit” as quoted from the Govt website, is if the work being done has a greater than 50% chance of either:
  • creating or preserving at least 50 UK-based jobs in either:
        – an existing UK-based business which has at least 50 employees
        – a new UK business within 1 year of the date of their arrival in the UK
  • purchasing goods or services from a UK based business with at least 50 employees – the order must be worth at least £100 million, or the order would be likely to create or preserve 50 or more jobs in that business.

Further guidance HERE that stipulates, ‘You do not qualify for the exemption if your activities can be done remotely (for example by telephone or email) or can be done by anyone other than you who would not need to leave self-isolation.’

It includes a list of eligible/ineligible activities & definitions of executives.