One step forward and one step back.
Last week it was known that the United Kingdom included in the
green list
of places to which it is recommended to travel to the Balearic Islands (although it kept the rest of Spain in the amber).
And this Monday, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced that Spain will require a negative PCR or have the complete vaccine schedule for visitors arriving from the United Kingdom from Thursday.
The Executive, fearing that the health situation will get out of control due to the mass arrival of travelers, again sets minimum entry requirements for the British to try to keep contagions at bay.
More information
The mega outbreak of covid due to study trips to Mallorca exceeds 600 cases in eight communities
The United Kingdom includes the Balearic Islands in the 'green list' of safest destinations, but not the rest of Spain
In English: Spanish PM announces travelers from UK will have to show PCR test or be fully vaccinated
“We will apply the same requirements to British tourists who go to the Balearic Islands as to other European citizens.
Therefore, they will need to be vaccinated with the complete regimen or a negative PCR.
We will apply it within 72 hours so that British tour operators and tourists can adapt to these new rules ”, Sánchez assured this Monday on the SER chain.
These conditions will apply to access any point in Spain, not only the Balearic Islands, although it referred to the islands due to the greater arrival of British that is expected from this week.
In addition, although it is compared with the conditions that already exist to travel through Europe, the reality is that they will not be the same requirements, since within the Union a certificate of having overcome the virus in the last six months is also accepted, as well as antigen testing. In the case of British tourists, however, only the vaccination certificate with a complete schedule of one of the drugs authorized by the European Medicines Agency or the World Health Organization and that the last puncture has been at least 14 will be valid. days before the trip. And for those who are not immunized, they will have to present a negative PCR performed within 72 hours prior to arrival in the country. This supposes a rectification to what was announced a little over a month ago,when the United Kingdom was included in the list of third countries from which it was possible to travel to Spain without restrictions.
The president has justified the measure in the epidemiological data of the country. “There is a negative evolution of the accumulated incidence in the United Kingdom during these last weeks. They are well above 150 cases [per 100,000 inhabitants] in 14 days and therefore we have to take some additional precaution in the face of the arrival of tourists to our country ”, he stressed. In Spain, the cumulative incidence is 95 cases per 100,000. This is the main reason for the new measure, according to Sánchez, who announced it on the eve of the British being able to start traveling to the Balearic Islands so that tour operators and tourists take this change into account when planning their trips.
In this way, the Executive is positioned at an intermediate point between what it had until now (entry without restrictions) and what other European countries such as Germany defend: imposing a quarantine on British tourists. In fact, Chancellor Angela Merkel called on the rest of the Union countries to impose quarantine on these travelers, as her country already does (France, for example, also supports this idea). Spain flatly rejected this initiative, as it could further damage its already very deteriorated tourism sector. For this reason, it has opted for a sanitary access control - vaccination certificate or negative PCR - to try not to slow down the recovery of the travel industry and the economy as a whole. "The Spanish Government is not in favor of drastic measures such as quarantines,but rather consensual decisions that allow the widest possible mobility as long as sanitary security measures are ensured ”, sources from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism assured last week.
Hope for the Balearic Islands
The entry of the Balearic Islands in the
green list
is still a breath of hope for the region, since the British who travel to autonomy will not be obliged to keep a mandatory 10-day quarantine upon their return, although they will have to undergo several tests detection of covid-19.
In 2019, almost four million Britons enjoyed their holidays in the archipelago, mainly in Mallorca.
Now, with this new requirement, a new mandatory test is added in many cases, but the Spanish Government hopes that this does not stop the return of these tourists.
This regulatory change also comes a few days after the mega-outbreak that occurred in student trips to Mallorca between June 18 and 20 was known, which already exceeds 700 cases in eight autonomous communities. Something that has put the Balearic Islands and the Government of Spain on alert so that infections do not trigger again after weeks of falling incidence accumulated in the country. This mega-outbreak affects the Community of Madrid, Galicia, the Basque Country, the Valencian Community, Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragon and Catalonia.
