UK quarantines travellers from Spain in sudden blow to Europe's revival

[rooster59]

UK quarantines travellers from Spain in sudden blow to Europe's revival

By David Milliken and Graham Keeley

 

British tourists returning to UK, check in their luggage, as Britain imposed a two-week quarantine on all travellers arriving from Spain, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Gran Canaria Airport, on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain July 25, 2020. REUTERS/Borja Suarez

 

LONDON/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Britain abruptly imposed a two-week quarantine on all travellers arriving from Spain after a surge of coronavirus cases, a dramatic and sudden reversal on Saturday to the opening of the European continent to tourism after months of lockdown.

 

The quarantine requirement takes effect from midnight (2300 GMT on Saturday), making it almost impossible for travellers to avoid it by rushing home.

 

The British foreign ministry also advised against all but essential travel to mainland Spain, a move likely to prompt tour operators to cancel package holidays and trigger claims against insurers.

 

Europe's biggest travel company TUI said it was cancelling all departures on Sunday to Spain from the United Kingdom, and was urgently reviewing future flights.

 

"We're incredibly disappointed that we didn't get more notice of this announcement, or that this decision wasn't made yesterday, as many Brits travel on holiday at the weekend," said TUI's UK managing director, Andrew Flintham.

 

EasyJet and British Airways said they did not plan to cancel flights over the coming days.

 

Spain's Canary and Balearic Islands are not covered by the advice to avoid travel to the mainland, but holidaymakers returning to Britain from the islands will still be subject to quarantine on return.

 

Britain's government urged employers to be "understanding" towards staff who are unable to return to work for two weeks after coming back from holiday.

 

Transport minister Grant Shapps himself will be subject to quarantine, after a spokesman confirmed that he is currently on holiday in Spain.

 

The British move followed steps this week by other European countries. On Friday Norway said it would re-impose a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving from Spain, while France advised people not to travel to Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia.

 

But the total collapse of tourism from Britain would have far more impact. Britons made up more than 20% of foreign visitors to Spain last year, the largest group by nationality. Tourism normally accounts for 12% of Spain's economy.

 

Spain had been on a list of countries that the British government had said were safe for travellers to visit - meaning tourists returning home would not have to go into quarantine.

 

The announcement of such lists just weeks ago had allowed Europe's tourism sector to begin to revive after the near total shut-down prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Responding to the British measures, Spain said on Saturday it was a safe country with localised, isolated and controlled outbreaks of the coronavirus.

 

A Spanish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Spain "respects decisions of the United Kingdom" and was in touch with the authorities there.

 

The British move will affect not just Spain's tourism sector but airlines and travel companies struggling to get back to business.

 

Britain's opposition Labour Party said the news was "deeply concerning" and called for support for British people affected.

 

A 'SAFE' COUNTRY

 

Antonio Perez, the mayor of Benidorm, a resort on Spain's Costa Blanca that is hugely dependent on British tourists, called the move "another tough blow".

 

"We have suffered a lot this year and then this happened. We thought that the British were going to come back but this makes things harder for now," he said.

 

Spain was one of the worst hit countries in Europe by the pandemic, with more than 290,000 cases and over 28,000 deaths. It imposed very strict lockdown measures to contain the spread, gradually easing them earlier this summer.

 

But the last few weeks saw a surge of cases, forcing local lockdowns to be reimposed in some areas.

 

On Friday Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told CNN that like many countries around the world that have managed to control the disease, Spain "has outbreaks but the governments -- both national and regional -- are working to isolate cases as soon as they appear".

 

The Catalonia region reported 1,493 new coronavirus cases and three deaths on Saturday. The regional government has urged residents of Barcelona to stay at home, and ordered all discos to shut from Saturday for the next 15 days.

 

Britain itself has been the worst hit country in Europe by the pandemic, with more than 328,000 cases and an official death toll of more than 45,600.

 

(Reporting by David Milliken; Additional reporting by Graham Keeley in Barcelona; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Frances Kerry and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-07-26

 

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[Yinn]

14 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Britain's government urged employers to be "understanding" towards staff who are unable to return to work for two weeks after coming back from holiday

Stupid people go to Spain for holiday. Selfish. 

They go USA, Brazil, India same? Idiots. 

Will be spread. Sure.

[Tarteso]

The Spanish Populist and Chavista government with their stupid measures regarding Covid, have managed to bring Spain to the most uncontrolled country in Europe.  The second wave is back to stay and finish destroying the country and to anyone who crosses their borders.       
 

Good Job ????

[jollyhangmon]

 

... looks as if a baby whale got stranded at check-in and nobody coming to help, pathetic ...

Also the lil' fella oughtta step back pronto, they tend to flap about a bit when that happens!

 

[stevenl]

Fast reaction from UK authorities this time.

[sandyf]

24 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Fast reaction from UK authorities this time.

Really good thinking, quarantine on, quarantine off, quarantine on.......

 

Quarantine measures for UK travellers were introduced in early June. But after pressure from the aviation and travel industries, the government and devolved administrations published lists of countries exempt from the rules.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53540691

[stevenl]

8 minutes ago, sandyf said:

Really good thinking, quarantine on, quarantine off, quarantine on.......

 

Quarantine measures for UK travellers were introduced in early June. But after pressure from the aviation and travel industries, the government and devolved administrations published lists of countries exempt from the rules.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53540691

Agree that it doesn't seem well thought through and seems a measure made in panick. But it is fast 

[mickymouse1]

Sea saw government!!

Lost it from the very beginning...

[sanuk711]

[J Town]

I'm hosting as many dinner parties as I can for my friends cuz as soon as tourists come back, so will the virus. Back to self isolation. ☹️

[Rimmer]

An inflammatory post has been removed

[phetchy]

3 hours ago, sanuk711 said:

Cobblers?

[phetchy]

Admittedly not a nice surprise if you were just about to board your flight home after a lovely couple of weeks in Spain and were faced with two weeks of solitary when you get home.  Many implications for going back to work, school kids etc etc, but at least you can get home and isolate in your own home as opposed to returnee farangs jumping through endless expensive hoops to enter Thailand.  At least you have a choice to take the Thai ASQ method or not, whereas going back to the UK you have hobsons choice.

[George Aylesham]

56 minutes ago, phetchy said:

Cobblers?

The prime minister of the Australian State of Victoria recently announced that sex workers should limit themselves to 2 or 3 customers a day!

[elliss]

1 hour ago, George Aylesham said:

The prime minister of the Australian State of Victoria recently announced that sex workers should limit themselves to 2 or 3 customers a day!

 

        Thailand ,  should follow this fine example ..

[dunroaming]

5 hours ago, stevenl said:

Agree that it doesn't seem well thought through and seems a measure made in panick. But it is fast 

Anyone going to Spain over the last few weeks knew there was a risk of this happening after there was a spike in Catalonia.  Spain is the first choice for most package holiday families in the UK.  Most felt the risks were worth it and going this early meant that any quarantine would be dealt with before the school started back in September.

 

There will be a knock on effect.  Clearly better to write off European holidays this year.

[phetchy]

1 hour ago, George Aylesham said:

The prime minister of the Australian State of Victoria recently announced that sex workers should limit themselves to 2 or 3 customers a day!

 Such is the lack of fun seekers in Thailand now, it's more likely to be customers limiting themselves to 2 or 3 sex workers a day.

[dunroaming]

12 minutes ago, elliss said:

 

        Thailand ,  should follow this fine example ..

Fine example?

[Anton9]

8 hours ago, Yinn said:

Stupid people go to Spain for holiday. Selfish. 

They go USA, Brazil, India same? Idiots. 

Will be spread. Sure.

Those countries soon will have herd immunity while Thailand will destroy its economy panicking and  locking down for every asymptomatic case.

Edited July 26, 2020 by Anton9

[stevenl]

7 minutes ago, Anton9 said:

Those countries soon will have herd immunity while Thailand will destroy its economy panicking and  locking down for every asymptomatic case.

No, herd immunity has not been taking seriously by experts for quite some time now. Only a vaccine might achieve this.

[dunroaming]

There will be a vaccine and probably available by the end of the year.  That will then allow some return to normal next year and maybe then it may be worth looking at holidays overseas again.

[Anton9]

14 minutes ago, stevenl said:

No, herd immunity has not been taking seriously by experts for quite some time now. Only a vaccine might achieve this.

Do you realize herd immunity and vaccines use the same principle right?

So called "experts" are waiting for the vaccine to make billions of dollars

Edited July 26, 2020 by Anton9

[Anton9]

2 minutes ago, dunroaming said:

There will be a vaccine and probably available by the end of the year.  That will then allow some return to normal next year and maybe then it may be worth looking at holidays overseas again.

There will be no vaccine by the end of the year and it will take years to produce billions of doses

[dunroaming]

1 minute ago, Anton9 said:

There will be no vaccine by the end of the year and it will take years to produce billions of doses

So we have opposing opinions.  Mine no more valid than yours.  Time will tell.  Let's touch base again at the beginning of next year shall we?

[from the home of CC]

you would of have to been blind, deaf or just plain drunk to attempt this in the first place. The legal drug industry got the bars rolling and then the airline/tourist industry decided they needed to spread the pox around all in the name of commerce, you couldn't make up this farce if you tried..

[puipuitom]

44 minutes ago, dunroaming said:

Clearly better to write off European holidays this year.

Good idea. Get already used to no-deal Brexit, and Schengen visa per 1 Jan 2021

[puipuitom]

35 minutes ago, Anton9 said:

Those countries soon will have herd immunity while Thailand will destroy its economy panicking and  locking down for every asymptomatic case.

herd immunity... with now just a 5% infected, and.. chance the anti-bodies gone after a few months ...

 

USA: 4 million tested positive. Imagine: the 8-fold in reality has been infected, but not tested.. so a 32 million, on a population of 331 million... and 145.000 deaths... up to 1.5 million dead Americans...more as all wars US soldiers fought in together

[stevenl]

26 minutes ago, Anton9 said:

Do you realize herd immunity and vaccines use the same principle right?

So called "experts" are waiting for the vaccine to make billions of dollars

Nice attempt to divert from a nonsense post you made.

[CorpusChristie]

35 minutes ago, Anton9 said:

There will be no vaccine by the end of the year and it will take years to produce billions of doses

The UK are currently making vaccines now , as soon as its passed fit to work, it will be available for use 

[Anton9]

2 hours ago, puipuitom said:

herd immunity... with now just a 5% infected, and.. chance the anti-bodies gone after a few months ...

 

USA: 4 million tested positive. Imagine: the 8-fold in reality has been infected, but not tested.. so a 32 million, on a population of 331 million... and 145.000 deaths... up to 1.5 million dead Americans...more as all wars US soldiers fought in together

Yeah but those soldiers were not 80 years old with a life expetancy of 1/2 years.

US now has around 80 thousands official new cases per day, probably means almost 1 million new infections per day.

 

 

Edited July 26, 2020 by Anton9