The corona-coaster – which for a couple of weeks in late December/January had been on an upward trajectory – took a nose dive this week, with the news of the flight ban between the UK and the UAE. 

For the 200,000 British expats living out here, with family back at home, it’s an awful feeling when the distance is made even longer. God forbid if anyone needed to get back to the UK urgently, for a family emergency. They’d have to find another route somehow. And then there’s the spectre of the quarantine hotels. 

From 15 February, on arrival at your hotel you’ll be met by staff in full PPE who will accompany you, along with a security guard, to your allocated room and make absolutely clear that you can’t leave for 11 nights. 

These security guards will conduct internal and external patrols, and also “accompany any of the arrived individuals to access outside space should they need to smoke or get fresh air”, although government sources said this was still being confirmed. It might be that there’s no access to daylight at all. 

For this privilege, you’ll need to pay around £1,500, which will include three meals a day from a “non-repetitive menu” and a laundry service for just seven small items a week. 

All rooms (which you’ll need to clean yourself) will have tea- and coffee-making facilities, a small fridge “if possible”, television “and/or radio”, Wi-Fi, and individual ventilation systems.

If the Australian quarantine hotels are anything to go by, it will be a maddeningly claustrophobic and largely boring experience.

When will all this end?

I guess the thing about pandemics is they tend to drag on. Though we finally have vaccines being rolled out, the wait to return to normal life feels interminable.