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Reuters
The UK government’s decision to impose a two-week quarantine on everyone arriving from Spain was “unfair,” the country’s prime minister said.
Pedro Sánchez said tourists in most Spanish regions would be safer from the coronavirus than in the UK, and he hoped Britain would reconsider its movement.
He said the talks were ongoing after the UK also advised against all but essential travel to all of Spain.
Labor said the government’s handling of the restrictions had been “chaotic.”
But the UK government said it has no plans to change its decision to reintroduce quarantine measures since last Sunday, and Boris Johnson’s official spokesman warned that “no trip is without risk during this pandemic.”
On Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs extended its travel advice to Spain, and is now telling people to avoid nonessential travel to the Canary and Balearic Islands, as well as to mainland Spain.
In an interview on the Spanish television network Telecinco, Sánchez said he hoped to convince the UK government to change its decision to remove Spain from a list of countries exempt from quarantine rules.
“We are talking to the British authorities to try to reconsider a measure that, in our opinion, is not well adjusted if we consider the epidemiological criteria of Spain, particularly in some tourist destinations in our country.”
He said the UK had made a “mistake” in considering the infection rate for the whole country.
The Prime Minister of Spain added that “64.5% of the new cases registered are in two territories” and in most of Spain the prevalence of Covid-19 was “much lower than the numbers registered in the United Kingdom”.
The infection rate in Spain is 35.1 cases per 100,000 people, while the United Kingdom is at 14.7, according to the latest figures from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
While the outbreak remains under control in many parts of Spain, certain areas, particularly Catalonia in the northeast and the neighboring region of Aragon, have seen a large increase in infections.
Data up to July 19 suggested that there were lower infection rates in the Balearic and Canary Islands than in mainland Spain.
Travelers returning to the UK from anywhere in Spain must now insulate themselves for 14 days at a registered address.
Vacation companies Jet2 and Tui were among those that announced flight cancellations following the UK announcement.
EasyJet, British Airways and Ryanair said they would continue to operate full flight schedules to Spain, although EasyJet said their holidays would be canceled in the coming weeks.
Among the thousands affected by the change in travel advice was Tom Clasby, who had checked into an airport hotel near Stansted with his fiancé, his two daughters, and other family members, before a holiday in Mallorca.
Clasby, 26, was due to leave at 06:55 BST on Tuesday but is now facing having to return home to Bury St. Edmunds.
“We are in a situation where we still can’t do anything and I really don’t know what to do. The poor girls have been so excited for this holiday, it’s the second party this year that we have canceled,” he told the BBC.
“We are very disappointed, the girls will be very upset in the morning.”
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Tom clasby
Tom Clasby said he was afraid to tell his two daughters that their Spanish vacation had been canceled.
Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps, who flew to Spain on Saturday despite being aware that a decision on quarantine policy must be made, was also affected.
Shapps said in a statement that he would return to the UK on Wednesday to complete his quarantine and return to work as soon as possible.
Labor has urged the government to intervene to protect jobs in the travel industry.
Shadow Transportation Secretary Jim McMahon said: “The government’s handling of this issue has been chaotic. The airline industry and passengers need clarity.”
He added that the government “must focus support on sectors that desperately need it, such as aviation.”
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry has been criticized by parliamentarians for its response in helping more than a million Britons traveling abroad at the start of the pandemic.
The Foreign Affairs Committee said the repatriation operation had been too slow, while the councils had been misleading or confusing.
It occurs when seven other people with coronavirus died in all settings in the UK, according to the latest government figures, bringing the total number of deaths in the UK to 45,759.
In other developments:
- The leader of the World Health Organization said that Covid-19 is easily the most severe global health emergency he has declared
- Activists have written to the health secretary to say that the lack of translated guidance on the coronavirus is jeopardizing the safety of non-English speakers in the UK.
- A report by the Commons Committee on Home Affairs says more vigorous measures must be taken to protect people in asylum accommodation from the risk of coronavirus. Parliamentarians say the use of shared rooms makes it “extremely difficult” for people to maintain social distancing
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Republicans have proposed spending an additional $ 1 trillion (£ 776 billion) to address the economic damage caused in the United States by the pandemic
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