Quarantine in Spain: coronavirus is now ruining summer vacation plans

“We have to keep the situation under review, and I think that is what the public would expect us to do,” Junior Health Minister Helen Whately told Sky News when asked about reports that more countries could be eliminated. from the UK safe list.

“If we see rates go up in a country where there is currently no need to quarantine … we would have to take action because we cannot risk the coronavirus spreading all over the UK again,” Whately said.

She said that people “should be aware that we are in a global pandemic situation,” adding: “We started travel bridges because people wanted to be able to travel but we said at the time that we had to keep it under control.” review and that is exactly what we have done with Spain “.

Rapid increase in cases

The UK’s sudden decision to reinstate the two-week self-isolation requirement came after Spain reported 922 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday and 971 on Thursday, the country’s biggest increases since May 8.

Spain announced that the blockade restrictions would be re-imposed in the northern region of Aragon, while the regional government has also subjected Barcelona and other parts of Catalonia to stricter measures.

Speaking on Sky News on Sunday, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the government “made the decision as fast as we could, and we cannot apologize for doing so.”

The United Kingdom has a higher total number of confirmed cases and deaths than Spain, with the third highest number of deaths (behind the United States and Brazil) worldwide. But with cases increasing much faster in Spain today, British travelers returning from the country will not be able to leave their homes for two weeks.

Phil Bicknew, a British tourist returning from a weekend in Valencia with his partner, told CNN that he was “half waiting” for the new quarantine rules, but that it was a “strange scenario”.

“We have two children and a dog. I don’t know if I can take the dog for a walk. I don’t know how it will work,” he said.

Bicknew’s children stay with their grandparents and he said his son could stay there so he can still go out and play cricket. “I am not sure how our daughter will react, she is only nine years old. So we will probably end up dividing the family for 14 days. We do not live very far apart, but it is still a strange scenario that we have never faced before.” added.

Miriam Cortez, a London doctor who visited her parents for the first time since Christmas, told CNN that she would have to miss 14 days of work on her return.

“I came two weeks ago when there were no quarantine rules and yesterday they imposed a new quarantine. So I asked about my job and they are not going to evaluate us,” he said.

Cortez said he felt it was “a little unfair” to include all of Spain in the quarantine rules. “The rules are stricter here than in London. I really feel safer here than there.”

British tourist Carolyne Lansell, who was flying to Ibiza from Madrid on Sunday, told Reuters she was “frustrated” by the new rules, especially as Spain felt safer than the UK, with everyone wearing masks.

Emily Harrison of Essex in south-east England told Reuters that she disagreed with the measure because “all of a sudden, she wasn’t given much time to prepare, so now everyone is panicking and I think too it ruins plans for everyone. ” “

‘Damage to business’

The UK’s abrupt step is not only a heavy blow to travelers, but could be detrimental to the global tourism industry as companies, from major airlines to small restaurants and guest houses, are already struggling to survive the pandemic.

In response to the new rules, tour operator TUI told CNN in a statement on Sunday that it was canceling “all vacations to mainland Spain” from now until August 9.

TUI Managing Director Andrew Flintham said in a statement on Sunday that the operator was “incredibly disappointed” by the British government’s swift decision to close the travel corridor between Spain and the United Kingdom.

“This level of uncertainty and confusion is detrimental to business and disappointing to those expecting a well-deserved break,” the TUI statement said.

Norway will also impose a mandatory 10-day quarantine on all travelers returning from Spain after the increase in coronavirus cases, its Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday.

Norway advises against all non-essential travel to various European countries, including Andorra, Bulgaria, Croatia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Spain and some regions of Sweden, the ministry said in a statement.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex said Saturday that France could do the same, as countries strive to avoid closures at the national level that could cause further social and economic damage.

The French Health Ministry said in a press release on Friday that the rate of coronavirus infections, known as the “R” rate, has risen to 1.3 in France, and that the country had “erased much of the progress we had done in the first few weeks of decontamination. ” Castex also advised the French not to travel to Catalonia in Spain.

The German center for disease prevention, the Robert Koch Institute, called the overall increase in Covid-19 infections in the country “very disturbing” and says it is “monitoring the situation very closely.”

The Institute said Saturday that it had registered 815 and 781 new infections on successive days late last week. “Before, the number was considerably less: about 500 new cases per day,” he said in a press release. The increase was attributed mainly to a larger number of larger gatherings in Germany, but also to people returning from vacations abroad.

TUI is now asking for regional travel brokers, and the travel operator will continue its flights to the Balearic and Canary Islands of Spain starting on Monday.

“If there are areas where infection rates are lower and therefore safe travel can go ahead, we would seek to have a consistent approach so that quarantine does not apply to those locations,” Flintham told BBC Radio 4 Monday.

He said the travel industry needed “every piece of aid we can get from the government.”

The Balearic Islands government, home to popular destinations like Mallorca and Ibiza, tweeted over the weekend that it had been working “to establish the base of a safe air corridor with the United Kingdom,” noting that the infection rate per 100,000 people are taller in the UK than on the islands.

Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth of Labor said Shapps’ trip “tells him all about the government’s approach to this,” and described the communication around the makeover as “bleak.”

Whether travelers are angry at the rule changes or accept that they took a risk by booking a vacation in the midst of a global pandemic, the latest change can only spell further pain for the world’s financial and emotional health, as the coronavirus keeps us in a state of constant uncertainty

CNN’s Atika Shubert, Hilary McGann, Tim Lister, Alex Durie, Laura Pérez Maestro, Fred Pleitgen and Duarte Mendonca contributed to the reports.