UK imposes 14-day quarantine on travellers from Spain
The UK will impose restrictions on holidaymakers returning from Spain on Saturday in a bid to curb the surge in coronavirus infections, the government has confirmed.
The decision means those coming back from Spain will have to self-isolate for two weeks upon their return.
The move, a blow to the government’s controversial travel corridor scheme, followed a dramatic increase in the deadly virus in Spain which has seen nearly 1,000 infections reported over two days.
Ministers are set to remove Spain from the government’s list of safe countries to travel to from midnight.
In a twist, Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, who has been instrumental in drawing up the air corridor plans, was understood to be already holidaying in Spain, or to be in the process of travelling there.
Tourists and travellers were told they could avoid the 14-day social isolation rules if they returned to the UK by 11pm on Saturday.
The exclusion of Spain from the protected travel corridors is likely to provoke criticism from Madrid. It would deal a heavy blow to Spain, which is trying to recoup its tourism season after the sector took a battering from coronavirus lockdowns and travel restrictions earlier in the year.
A Spanish foreign ministry spokeswoman said that Spain “respects decisions of the United Kingdom” and is in touch with UK authorities. In Spain, critics were quick to point out that areas popular with UK tourists, such as the Costa del Sol and Benidorm, were not reporting infection surges.
Catalonia became the latest region to crack down on nightlife, trying to halt new infection clusters. The wealthy north-east region ordered all nightclubs to close for 15 days and put a midnight curfew on bars in the greater Barcelona area and other towns that have become contagion hot zones.
Spain could be facing the start of a second major outbreak.
Britain is not alone in tightening restrictions on travellers from Spain. Germany said on Saturday that it was also considering mandatory coronavirus tests for travellers returning from high-risk destinations including Spain, according to its health minister, Jens Spahn.
Norway said it will reimpose a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving from Spain from Saturday, while France advised people not to travel to Catalonia.
In an interview with CNN on Friday, the foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, said Spain was one of the countries with the “most controls and mechanisms for identifying outbreaks” and played down suggestions of a second wave of Covid-19. “We’re not worried; we’re identifying cases and isolating them to cut off transmission,” she said.
“As long as we don’t have a vaccine or a treatment, this is what the new normality will be like. We ask citizens to comply with the restrictions and behave in a responsible manner. There isn’t a second outbreak but there are one-off outbreaks.”
Read the original article at The Guardian