The Quarantine Is Like Serving The Jail Time, Say Students From India On Self-Isolating In The United Kingdom Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Students travelling to the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe for higher education are required to stay in quarantine for 10 days even after being fully vaccinated. NDTV spoke with two such students- Jetal Zala from University of Stirling and Jill Sheth from Heriot Watt University on NDTV's special show #UnlockEducation to learn about their current living situation while being in self-isolation. The students told NDTV that they have taken both their shots of Covishield and yet have to self-isolate for 10 days.

The students were required to go through official formalities of entering into a country and after that they were immediately taken to the hotel for quarantine. 

It is our ninth day in quarantine, we came here on July 24. It has been a really stressful situation for us because it will be 10 days in the hotel and we are locked up here. We cannot go out unless there is a security guard who is accompanying us every evening. So we get 15 minutes to go out for a walk because unfortunately, the window in our room does not open at all. So we are completely locked in a room and at the moments, we are really stressed out because we just feel like it is a jail for us. We can't even open our doors, said Ms Zala.

Adding further to Ms Zala's statement, Ms Sheth said that the quarantine is indeed like a jail term and it would have been even more difficult for them to stay in isolation had they not been there together. She said,

At least we speak the same language and we have known each other since a long time so that is good but talking to our parents is very difficult because the wifi connection here is poor. 

Ms Zala highlighted that the room that they paid for does not include cleaning services. She said,

The cleaning staff does not enter our room and we are not even provided with cleaning appliances so that we can clean it ourselves. So the room looks completely a mess and on the top of that, we are not given any extra bedsheets or any pillows. Since last nine days we have been using the same bedsheets, said Ms Sheth.

Even though the students had highlighted while booking that they will need food without eggs and something vegetarian, but on reaching the hotel and during their stay, they have been constantly bombarded with food items that contain eggs. 

On complaining, they ask us to just throw away the food. But they need to understand that the food that is given to us is not even enough for one person. Last night we were just given some Greek salad along with a plate of salad and some cold drink. We got three slices of pizza with some fruit and soft drink for lunch today.

The students said that paying a high cost for quarantine for being in the UK is very difficult, especially after taking both doses of Covishield vaccine which is the same vaccine that many other students from European countries have taken.