Spain is safe, minister insists as British quarantine move sows dismay

[webfact]

Spain is safe, minister insists as British quarantine move sows dismay

By Ingrid Melander and Nathan Allen

 

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

 

MADRID/LONDON (Reuters) - Spain is safe for tourists and Spaniards, the government insisted on Sunday after Britain abruptly imposed a two-week coronavirus quarantine on travellers returning from there, a decision that filled holidaymakers with dismay.

 

Last year, Britons made up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies on heavily on tourism revenues, meaning the UK move could deal a hard blow to efforts to restart the Mediterranean country's economy after months of lockdown.

 

"Spain is safe, it is safe for Spaniards, it is safe for tourists," Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told reporters.

 

The Spanish government will focus its efforts on trying to persuade Britain to exclude the Balearic and Canary islands from the quarantine measure, she said, adding that the prevalence of the virus in those popular travel destinations was much lower than in the United Kingdom.

 

Spain has seen COVID-19 cases rise in the last few weeks, and Britain announced late on Saturday it was taking the country off a safe-travel list. The quarantine took effect hours later.

 

British foreign minister Dominic Raab on Sunday stood by his government's abrupt decision to impose a two-week coronavirus quarantine on travelers returning from Spain, which has provoked anger and confusion among tourists. Emer McCarthy reports.

 

The measure upset the plans of many people either on holiday or planning to take one and caused more disruption for airlines and tour companies.

While Gonzalez Laya avoided directly criticising the UK move, British tourists travelling in Spain were more blunt.

 

"It's a bit crazy considering the restrictions in place in Spain already are really good, with the masks, with disinfecting everything, with hand wash in the shops. That's better than what we have in London," Rich Lambert, a communications officer, said at Barcelona's airport.

 

Britain has also advised against all but essential travel to mainland Spain, leaving the islands out of the advice but including them in the quarantine measure.

 

TUI UK, part of the TUI, holiday company, said it would cancel all holidays to mainland Spain up to Aug. 9, while maintaining flights to the Balearic and Canary islands.

 

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab defended the quarantine decision on Sunday, as a "real-time response" to a jump in infections in Spain. "We can't make apologies ... we must be able to take swift, decisive action," he said on Sky News.

 

The opposition Labour Party's health policy chief, Jonathan Ashworth, slammed Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government for its "frankly shambolic" handling of the measure.

 

'ABSOLUTE DISASTER'

Spain's rise in COVID-19 cases has prompted most regions to impose rules for masks to be worn everywhere and, in several areas including Barcelona, calls for people to stay at home.

 

Most new cases have been concentrated in the northeastern region of Catalonia and neighbouring regions, so a lot of the criticism focused on the fact that the quarantine also applies to areas which have been spared the brunt of the pandemic.

 

"This is ridiculous. There are almost no cases here and there's a far higher chance of contracting it when I get back to Britain," said John Snelling, 50, from Stratford-upon-Avon, who was on holiday in Menorca.

 

Britain has been the hardest-hit country in Europe by the pandemic. Spain was also badly affected, with more than 290,000 cases and over 28,000 deaths. It imposed very strict lockdown measures, gradually easing them earlier in the summer.

 

Norway last week reimposed a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving from Spain, while France advised people not to travel to Catalonia.

 

But a collapse of tourism from Britain would have far more of an impact on Spain, where tourism accounts for 12% of economic output. Britons make up the largest group of foreign visitors by nationality.

 

"This decision is an absolute disaster for the recovery, there's no other way to see this," Angel Tavares, head of European Economics at Oxford Economics consulting, said on Twitter, referring to the quarantine measure.

 

Maria Frontera, head of Mallorca's FEHM hotel association said she was shocked by the UK move "just like the British citizens who were enjoying their holidays here in Spain."

 

(Reporting by Nathan Allen, Elena Rodriguez, Guillermo Martinez, Elizabeth Piper, Ingrid Melander, Michael Holden, Luis Felipe Castilleja, Jordi Rubio; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Nathan Allen; Editing by Frances Kerry and Pravin Char)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-07-27

 

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[melvinmelvin]

 

UK being very hard hit by undesirable corona side effects

UK takes some measures to reduce illnesses and deaths

 

the Spanish government will focus on getting UK to drop some of the measures

because the measures don't suit Spanish wallets

 

what a laugh

politicians? 13 for a farthing

 

[tribalfusion001]

Lip service as the 14 day quarantine is at home, you have to trust people to quarantine rather than lock them up as Aus, NZ, Vietnam and Thailand does. Pointless and destructive to tourism.

[jaiyen]

It has been proven and seen everywhere that people can't be trusted to self quarantine at home. Look how well the system is working in Western Australia.  My life is far more important than tourism even though we are desperate to travel.

[bartender100]

I just can't see who will enforce it in the UK, not the knee bending police for sure, it smells like a political move anyway, part of the exit negotiations perhaps

[tribalfusion001]

2 minutes ago, bartender100 said:

I just can't see who will enforce it in the UK, not the knee bending police for sure, it smells like a political move anyway, part of the exit negotiations perhaps

But Spain are minor players in the EU, smacks of a government that don't know what they are doing. Even worse the transport secretary is on holiday there and now has to self quarantine when he returns.

[englishoak]

The media in Spain and others EU countries are peddling a second wave panic story.... politics is sensitive to popularity and they will react... This is Spain shooting itself in the foot after making political deals about tourism, just as France has... Portugal has less cases than either yet it remains on the Q list..  

 

So what if there are cases, The death rates are all that matter not cases... it was supposed to be all about not overwhelming services not hiding like rabbits and destroying Economies.

 

Stupid stupid stupid... 

 

 

[tribalfusion001]

13 minutes ago, englishoak said:

The media in Spain and others EU countries are peddling a second wave panic story.... politics is sensitive to popularity and they will react... This is Spain shooting itself in the foot after making political deals about tourism, just as France has... Portugal has less cases than either yet it remains on the Q list..  

 

So what if there are cases, The death rates are all that matter not cases... it was supposed to be all about not overwhelming services not hiding like rabbits and destroying Economies.

 

Stupid stupid stupid... 

 

 

Couldn't agree more, self inflicted meltdown at it's finest. Why is Portugal on the quarantine list, no idea, it has around 168 deaths per million and Spain is around 608 deaths per million, go figure what this BS is all about, because I'm at a loss!

[mrfill]

56 minutes ago, tribalfusion001 said:

But Spain are minor players in the EU, smacks of a government that don't know what they are doing. Even worse the transport secretary is on holiday there and now has to self quarantine when he returns.

He'll probably use one of his alternative names and declare himself an 'elite sportsman', who are excluded from quarantine.

[bluesofa]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

"Spain is safe, it is safe for Spaniards, it is safe for tourists," Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told reporters.

I'd hope so. He wouldn't want to be seen as a Spaniard who blighted my life.

 

[terryw]

The UK govt cannot win. In March they were accused of being too slow, now the media says they are too fast. Also, how do you quarantine the 600,000 UK tourists currently in Spain?

 

Germany and France could be next on the quarantine list.