Quote Originally Posted by fred View Post
British embassy is only a Visa fee collection agency... They do not entertain British citizens.. Those days are long gone IMO.
When the Chinese-Bat-Virus struck hard last March I was in Quito, Ecuador. Most businesses closed, there was a curfew, and some kind of a ban on local travel.

I contacted the British Embassy via their website. They provided information and support about evacuation flights and also gave me a "Salvocunducto" (official Government travel authorisation to the airport), and a cover letter, just in case anybody wanted to shoot me.

I was able to leave on my scheduled KLM flight, it was the last one to leave the city and I even got upgraded.

The Embassy e-mailed several days later to check that everything was OK.

Unfortunately, nowadays the pandemic is the norm, nobody cares any more.