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Corona in Spain: Country almost completely risk area - Mallorca also affected

2020-08-22T17:31:15.296Z


Travel warning for vacationers: The whole of Spain has been declared a risk area, with one exception. Vacationers in the country - also on Mallorca - have to consider a few things.


Travel warning for vacationers: The whole of Spain has been declared a risk area, with one exception. Vacationers in the country - also on Mallorca - have to consider a few things.

  • The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has classified Spain as a risk area, the Federal Foreign Office has issued a travel warning.
  • The coronavirus * has spread again, the number of new infections is increasing.
  • The only exception from the risk area are the Canaries.

Update, August 17, 4:21 p.m.: Riot around the travel warning for Mallorca : Providers cancel their trips to the popular holiday island, restaurant and hotel operators are desperate. Criticism comes from the industry . The travel warning is a shame on Mallorca and unsettled consumers, criticized Mark Tantz, managing director of DER Touristik Deutschland , on Monday. Industry leader Tui also regretted that there was a travel warning for all of Mallorca instead of the city of Palmaor regionally affected places on the island. "Many guests contact us and want to stay," said a Tui spokesman. In the hotel or on a finca in the country, they are far from parties. The organizer asks its guests to return home within the next seven days . Tui has initially canceled trips to Mallorca until August 24th. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs and employees of the crisis-ridden tourism industry demonstrated on the holiday island for more support. 

countrySpain
population46.94 million (2019)
CapitalMadrid
prefix+34

In order to cope with the increasing numbers, people are now even thinking out loud about a smoking ban. The Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa hopes that this measure will reduce the number of infected people.

Update, August 16, 9:14 a.m.: Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) defended the strict rules that apply after returning from a holiday in Spain or Mallorca in Bild am Sonntag and also in the ARD Tagesthemen . "This is not a travel ban, but the clear message: Anyone who comes from a holiday in Spain must be in quarantine as long as they do not have a negative test result," Spahn told the newspaper. Spain - with the exception of the Canary Islands - has been a corona risk area since Friday - including the Balearic island of Mallorca, which is very popular with German holidaymakers .

The Minister of Health wrote on Twitter : “The travel warning for Spain is drastic for many. But it is necessary in view of the dynamics. ”The pandemic is not over yet. But with “perseverance and team spirit” the Germans would also cope with the travel time.

The travel warning for Spain is drastic for many. But it is necessary in view of the dynamics. The pandemic is not over. Returning travelers have to be quarantined at home until the test result is negative. With perseverance and team spirit, we also master the travel time

- Jens Spahn (@jensspahn) August 15, 2020

Update, August 14, 7.42 p.m.: The Federal Foreign Office has issued the official travel warning for Spain . The federal government is now warning against traveling to almost all regions of Spain - including the popular tourist island of Mallorca . Other travel hotspots such as Catalonia and Barcelona had already been declared risk areas. According to the Foreign Office, Spain is severely affected by Corona . As with the assessment as a risk area, there is only one exception for the whole of Spain : the Canary Islands . If you are not traveling to Fuerteventura or Tenerife , you as a holidaymaker must undergo a free corona test when you re-enter . In addition, there may be an obligation to quarantine for those returning from Spain who have not been to the Canary Islands.

Corona in Spain: travel warning and risk area - more new infections not only in Mallorca

Update, August 14, 5:47 p.m.: It's official. The federal government has classified Spain as a risk area. The only exception are the Canaries . The federal government has decided to take this step due to the high number of infections . Initially, only Barcelona, ​​Catalonia, the Basque Country, Navarra, Aragon and Madrid were classified as risk areas. That changed today. Vacationers who have currently booked a vacation to Mallorca and Co. can, according to information from the lawyer Arndt Kempgens, cancel and get their money back in full. The trips do not have to be canceled! Travel warnings and the classification as a risk area do not count as a travel ban !

Update, August 14, 5:03 p.m.: Mallorca as a risk area : After a sharp increase in infections with the corona virus, the RKI has classified the Balearic Islands as a risk area, a travel warning from the Foreign Office will be coordinated at the moment, lawyer Arndt Kempgens informed our editorial team.

For vacationers, this means that the travel organizers have to arrange for a return transport, according to Kempgens. Additional costs would be borne by the organizer. In addition, the travelers receive reimbursement of parts of the travel price that could not be spent on vacation. Returning travelers also have to take a corona test . The lawyer from the Kempgens Brunnengräber law firm in Gelsenkirchen announced that the boss still had to pay those returnees wages if he came home late due to the corona measures, since the absence from work was not due.

The Tagesschau reports that the federal government classifies Spain as a whole as a risk area . The only exception are the Canaries .

Update, August 14, 4:14 p.m.: According to information from the Bild newspaper, the Robert Koch Institute in Germany has declared Mallorca a risk area. The classification applies to the entire Balearic Islands. The RKI warned against vacation in Spain .

There is still no official confirmation of this assessment by the Federal Government and the Foreign Office. Image refers to sources from the federal government .

Update from August 14th : The Corona situation on Mallorca is becoming more and more threatening. The number of new infections with the corona virus has exceeded the critical limit on the Spanish Mediterranean island. It is 66.81 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants. The limit set by Germany for classification as a corona risk area is 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) would have to react according to the rules it has drawn up and declare Mallorca a risk area. If so, the Federal Foreign Office will issue a travel warning.

Update from August 13: The fear of further travel warnings in Spain is growing - the Balearic Islands in particular are trembling. Mallorca is now registering its largest corona outbreak since the pandemic began in March. 228 cases are currently active in the Balearic Islands, and tourists are also affected. Mallorca is the largest islandmost infections with the  Sars-CoV-2 . Is the popular island also threatened with a travel warning?

First report from July 31: Barcelona / Mallorca - The travel warning from the Foreign Office for Spain was lifted in June . A wave of new infections with the coronavirus in the most popular holiday destination for Germans is turning everything upside down again: Due to the sharp rise in the number of corona infections , five regions in Spain are now considered risk areas, as reported by wa.de * .

Risk areas in Spain: travel warning for several regions

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has the end of July, the northern Spanish regions of Catalonia , Aragon and Navarra as risk areas classified. Popular tourist destinations such as Barcelona , the Costa Brava and the Spanish Pyrenees are located there . On July 28, the Federal Foreign Office had already advised against traveling to these regions. The official travel warning followed on July 30th .

The travel warning for Spain was extended on Tuesday, August 11th: The Foreign Office now advises against vacationing in the Spanish capital Madrid and the Basque Country . Due to the high number of corona infections and local closures, we do not recommend traveling to the regions. Two popular tourist regions in Spain have taken a rather unusual measure: In Galicia and the Canary Islands, smoking outside, such as in street cafes, will be banned if the safety distance of one and a half meters cannot be maintained.

The advising against travel is a kind of warning level under the travel warning. After the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has now included the three regions in the list of risk areas , which are kept independently of the travel advice and warnings from the Foreign Office, the travel warning from the Foreign Office was expected.

Travel warning for Spanish regions: Strict precautions apply again

The justification of the Federal Ministry of Health for the decision of the RKI to designate the regions in Spain as risk areas was that the threshold of more than 50 new infections with the coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants had been exceeded in the past seven days. Soon 500 coronavirus foci with almost 6000 active Covid-19 cases * were counted by the Spanish Ministry of Health on July 30, as reported by costanachrichten.com *.

The red line of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the past seven days is also considered the red line for reactivating travel warnings . The Federal Foreign Office  only lifted them on June 21 for Spain, which was particularly hard hit  by the corona pandemic . Spain, along with Luxembourg and Belgium, is the second country in the European Union to be warned against travel again - at least partially.

Risk areas in Spain: Switzerland and Austria are taking action

Switzerland is taking even tougher action: Due to the increasing corona numbers , Switzerland is putting the entire Spanish mainland on the list of corona risk areas . Anyone entering Switzerland from there must go into a ten-day quarantine from this Saturday, the Federal Office of Public Health announced on Wednesday. This also applies to those returning from vacation . The islands of the Balearic and Canary Islands are excluded.

And in Austria, too, a travel warning will apply from Monday to the entire Spanish mainland in connection with the Corona crisis. All mainland provinces of Spain are affected, with the exception of the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands . "It is expressly warned against traveling to the Spanish mainland," said the Foreign Ministry in Vienna on Thursday (August 6). The warning takes effect at midnight from Sunday to Monday.

In Austria, travelers returning from mainland Spain must present a negative corona test upon entry from August 10th. The same applies to other designated risk areas. Travel warnings are currently valid in Austria for 31 countries and the Chinese province of Hubei.

Risk areas in Spain: The tourism industry is deeply in crisis

The 14-week lockdown until June 21 and the corona numbers , which have risen again since then, have already hit the Spanish tourism industry badly. Citizens from the EU and the Schengen states are allowed to enter the country without restriction. But countries like Great Britain and Norway have now ordered compulsory quarantine for returnees from Europe's most important holiday destination.

In the country itself, strict precautionary measures apply, such as mask requirements not only in closed public spaces, but also outdoors, distance rules of at least one and a half meters, restrictions on the number of guests in restaurants and other facilities to 30 to 70 percent of normal capacities, depending on the region. In big cities like Barcelona or Madrid the nightlife is very limited , in Barcelona people are even asked to leave the house only for important reasons.

Travel warning for Spanish regions: online form and QR code

However , the Corona numbers are low on the Balearic Islands with Mallorca , which are very popular with Germans, and also on the Canaries . The pandemic is generally still considered to be under control in Spain despite many local outbreaks . Important for visitors to Spain: You have to fill out an online form and you will then receive a QR code , which you have to show when arriving by plane. The temperature should also be measured upon entry. However, travelers report that they were not checked at all.

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People sunbathe on a beach in Barcelona on July 18. Because of the rapidly increasing number of corona infections in Spain, the Federal Foreign Office is now warning against tourist trips to three regions of the most popular holiday destination for Germans. According to a message from the Foreign Office on July 31, Catalonia with the tourist metropolis of Barcelona is also affected by the formal travel warning.

© Paco Freire / dpa

Those returning to Germany should have a corona test since August 1st if they come from a risk area. The classification is the responsibility of the RKI. The approximately 140 countries affected include Brazil, the USA, Turkey and Balkan countries such as Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Luxembourg is currently the only complete EU country on the list.

Corona virus in Mallorca: first vacationers on the island in quarantine

The Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca, Cabrera, Ibiza, Formentera) and the Canaries (Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro) are not considered risk areas,although, for example, for the first time since the reopening of the island, a person on vacation from Mallorca tested positive for the corona virus and was sent to quarantine .

It was a person from  Spain who, together with nine companions, who also came from Spain, was accommodated in the Morlans Garden Hotel in the city of Peguera, which was rented especially for quarantine measures, just under 25 kilometers west of Palma de Mallorca , said a spokeswoman for the regional health authority . The regional government bears all costs for accommodation and meals, but not any costs for medical treatment.

Coronavirus on Mallorca: the number of infections is comparatively low

In Mallorca and the other Balearic Islands , the number of infections with the coronavirus, as in the Canaries, is relatively low compared to the three risk areas in Spain . However, pictures of wild parties caused outrage, especially by German and British holidaymakers * at whom no precautionary measures had been observed.

In Ibiza , however, the nightlife is suffering enormously from the Corona restrictions . In order to curb the spread of the corona virus, only clubs with a maximum capacity of 300 guests are allowed to open on Ibiza - and only for drinks. Dancing is no longer possible - visitors have to stay in their seats. Mega discos , which attract internationally known DJs and have made Ibiza the global center of the club scene , are therefore suspending this season. According to their operators, it would simply be impossible to use the Corona distance rules to host the wild parties for which they are famous.

Coronavirus in Spain: Canaries insure all tourists against Corona

The Canary Islands are the first region in Spain to insure  all visitors against additional costs in the event of an infection with the coronavirus while on vacation on the islands. The insurance covers the return flight home, quarantine accommodation and medical costs, said regional tourism minister Yaiza Castilla on Wednesday in Santa Cruz de Tenerife after signing an agreement with an insurance company.

On June 15, Mallorca was the first Spanish region to reopen in a pilot project initially only for holidaymakers from Germany. Since July 1st, all EU citizens and tourists from Schengen countries have been allowed to enter Spain. An epidemiologist classifies which factors currently speak for a second wave - and which do not. (hde / ecke - with dpa material) - * wa.de and costanachrichten.com are part of the Ippen digital network.

List of rubric lists: © Clara Margais

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-08-22

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