Augusto Santos Silva, the country’s foreign minister, said Portugal was “very disappointed” at having been excluded from a list of countries from which travelers will be exempt from spending two isolated weeks after arriving in England.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4 on Friday, Santos Silva said: “We are very disappointed with this decision by the British authorities. We believe it is absurd and unfair. It is quite absurd.”
“The UK has seven times as many Covid-19 related cases as Portugal, so we believe this is not the way allies and friends are treated,” he added.
While acknowledging that Portugal has experienced some “specific outbreaks” of Covid-19 in Lisbon, the minister noted that popular destinations among British tourists, such as the Algarve, were not coronavirus hot spots.
António Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal, also said that the Algarve was a safe place to spend a vacation this summer.
According to UK government data, around 2.5 million Britons traveled to Portugal last year.
CNN’s Isabela Tejera and Milena Veselinovic contributed to the reports.
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