Spanish authorities are insisting the country remains a safe destination for tourists after a rise in Covid-19 cases led the British government to warn against “all non-essential” travel to mainland Spain and ordered returning visitors to self-quarantine for a fortnight.
The British government’s sudden, de facto travel ban took many in Spain and the UK by surprise.
However, the Spanish government said it had been in touch with UK authorities before the move was announced and has stressed that the country remains open to overseas visitors.
“Spain is a safe country,” the foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, said on Sunday.
“Like any other country around the world that has managed to control Covid, Spain is working to isolate cases as soon as they appear, trace the contacts, and make sure we treat them and separate them so that the rest of the country can get on with their lives and the economy can continue, and that tourists can continue to enjoy Spain.”
González Laya said the Spanish government would keep working with other European governments to “reassure them and to send a message of confidence”. She said the government was focused on persuading the UK that the Balearic and Canary islands should be excluded from the self-quarantine requirements, adding that the “epidemiological case situation there is far below that of the UK”. Although the islands are not covered by the Foreign Office advice warning against all non-essential travel to mainland Spain, visitors returning from them are still required to quarantine.
On Friday, Spain’s health ministry recorded 922 new Covid-19 cases – slightly down from 971 over the previous 24 hours. Over the past seven days, 10 people have died from the coronavirus in Spain.
There have been 369 small outbreaks of Covid-19 since Spain’s state of emergency ended on 21 June. Of those, 281 remain active and involve a total of about 3,200 cases. González Laya said such outbreaks had always been anticipated once Spain’s strict three-month lockdown was lifted five weeks ago.
The minister said the situation was under control, pointing out that half of the new cases detected were asymptomatic, and adding that the health system was not under pressure. She also said that more than 4 million tests had been carried out.
Gonzalez Laya said the three largest outbreaks – in Barcelona, Zaragoza and Lleida – were under control, and that regional governments were following the early detection protocol agreed with the central government.
The British government’s decision is likely to increase the pressure on Spain’s struggling tourist sector, which generates 12% of the country’s GDP. More than 18 million Britons visited Spain last year, accounting for one-fifth of all foreign visitors.
The UK ban came two days after the French prime minister, Jean Castex, advised people against travelling across the border to Catalonia, which has been badly hit by new clusters of the virus.
The Catalan vice-president has also sought to restore visitors’ confidence and allay fears. Speaking during a visit to the Catalan town of Blanes on Sunday, Pere Aragonès said Covid-19 was affecting all countries and the region was no exception.
If people followed the rules, he said, “it’s safe to go about life as normally as we can under the circumstances, though perhaps at a slightly slower rhythm”.
Despite the assurances, France and the UK are not the only European countries to have updated their travel advice on Spain.
Norway has reimposed a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving from Spain, while Belgium has banned non-essential travel to Huesca and Lleida and recommended against travel to a number of other areas of Spain.
According to the latest figures from the health ministry, Spain has logged 272,421 cases of the virus and reported 28,432 deaths.
