Gathering information on changes in England post-COVID-19 crisis

Hi all.

Topical question from Veedushi.  To try and provide the most up to date information:

What are the current regulations for entering England?  Depends on where you are travelling from.  The latest up to date information is maintained on the UK Gov website; this link will take you straight there.

Have there been visa changes recently?  Although not linked directly to the COVID pandemic, the UK has recently announced extensive changes to work visas post 1 Jan 2021; basically, all nationals will now have to meet the same standards.  You can read all about them on the UK Gov website; this link will take you straight there.

Is it easy to find work in England following the crisis?  I think it's fair to say that with the closure of all high-street shops during the crisis, that work for some warehousing and distribution companies related to internet shopping has grown.  That said, the high-streets have recently re-opened and it's reasonable to expect that people will stop using internet shopping so much.  Concerning other work; many companies are now laying people off, so I would say that unless you have a key skill that's currently in demand, then no, it's currently not easy to find work in the UK.

How would you view the British healthcare system in light of the crisis?What can I say; there are 2 views here; one is political, the other medical operational.

Political. If your view is dictated by how many have died in the UK then it is poor.  There is reason to believe that the housing areas where BAME ex-pats tend to live have increased the risk of them catching this disease; this has been further compounded by the fact that BAME people seem to be more susceptible to COVID and the death rate amongst people of colour has been horrendous.  There is also a discussion going on with regards to how Care Homes for old-people seem to have been mismanaged with a directly related horrendous death rate.  That said, nobody alive has ever dealt with managing such a pandemic, so it's very easy to second guess those who have had to manage with this.

Medical/Operational.  My wife and daughter are both NHS nurses, so I like to think I am at least as well informed as they are.  Ignoring the death rate, on the whole, the NHS has coped amazingly well with this pandemic, nobody has ever been turned away; nobody has been left on a trolley while waiting to get in.  Accident and Emergency trauma units saw a fall-off in people needing emergency medical attention; the emergency hospitals they built have largely gone unused.  Technology has evolved to better treat those infected (using CPAP as opposed to intubation); there is criticism that historic cuts to hospital budgets caused a shortage of nurses and doctors and for the Government to ask retired nurses and doctors to return to work.  If there had been a way to cure/prevent this pandemic, then perhaps we would have had a better outcome.

Has anything changed regarding universities and schools?  Not all have fully re-opened.  Schools for essential workers have remained open throughout the pandemic, but these were more day-care oriented than proper schools.  Social distancing requirements have made it difficult for schools to re-open as before and it hasn't helped that the Trade Unions have begun to interfere.  Schools are aiming at fully re-opening in September 2020.

Universities are going to make more use of distance teaching using online courses; given that part of the university-experience is the actual leaving home and making friends with your future peers, perhaps not very useful for ex-pat students.

How is the real estate market following the crisis?  Just restarted; my son moved into his new house last weekend.  A recent rumour hinting that the Government were about to stop charging stamp-duty on top-end house purchases, has effectively collapsed the expensive housing market, so such housing is probably not the best place to invest any money at the moment.

Has the cost of living changed because of the crisis in England?  Prices have increased and there have been shortages due to consumers panic buying; the shelves in the supermarket are still not as full as before, but the prices have remained high.

How about lifestyle? Have there been major changes in habits following the sanitary crisis?  Depends where you live; it's quite common to see people in the cities going about wearing PPE; where we live in the countryside, we have had very little exposure (only 1 death locally), so people tend to live as before.  That said, more people are now working from home, we all tend to wash our hands much more and social distancing has become the norm.  If you use public transport in the UK, the law requires you to wear a face-mask; if you don't wish to wear a mask, it's quite simple, walk.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Hi Cynic,

I hope all is well on your end.

Thank you so much for this valuable information. This is definitely going to be helpful for soon to be expats.

Have a great week ahead!

Warm regards,
Veedushi

jesusclay2018 wrote:

England is a badly affected country with the covid-19 this is because people are not following the guidelines of the government to stay away from this virus. I am hopeful to get the best articles to read about covid so that I can gather the true information about it.

Interesting.  Where have you obtained this information from?  You couldn't have gotten much further from the facts if you tried.