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More tit for tat quarantine threats for Spain
In the continuing saga of governments acting like children, Spain is now joining France and threatening to put UK citizens into quarantine on their arrival. Spain is due to open its borders to the EU including the UK next week, apart from Portugal which open on 1 July. France introduced an even more pointless quarantine than the UK in retaliation against our own measures. From 8 June UK nationals are requested to quarantine on a voluntary basis for 14 days when entering France.
Their official statements says
“On 15 June, travellers arriving from the United Kingdom will no longer be subject to COVID-19-related restrictions for entering national territory, but will be asked to observe a 14-day quarantine upon their arrival.”
Now Spain has followed suit and said
Today Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told the BBC that”We will be checking what the UK will be doing and we will be in a dialogue with the UK to see whether or not we should be introducing reciprocity as they have different measures than the rest of the European Union,”.
Given that virtually everywhere in the EU is in a better situation than we are in the crisis, putting quarantine in place for EU arrivals is just resulting in more and more countries retaliating. Hopefully, the UK will sort this out by the time the FCO advice is lifted.
Air bridges to be announced by end of June
There definitely seems to be more light at the end of the tunnel emerging or is that more the end of the air bridge? Today the Transport Minister Grant Shapps announced to LBC radio that they were working hard to establish air bridges with low-risk countries. It has already been suggested that Portugal could be one of the first countries to agree to this.
Grant said
“We won’t be in a position to announce which countries – where reciprocal arrangements go in place – until the 29th,” he said. “So don’t expect anything this week, I think I’m right in saying it’s only the end of next week.”
There have been quite a few rumours about exactly this, but it is good to see it confirmed by the Transport Minister. My bets would be on Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy as some of the first countries to agree to an air bridge and be deemed safe enough. Ideally, they would do a deal with the entire EU since we are still deemed part of it during the transition period! Many countries such as Italy and Spain are in favour of a pan European policy with the UK.
The 29 June is the date of the first formal review of the widely criticised quarantine policy that came in on 8 June. I predict that alongside the air bridges, FCO advice will be country-specific with all those countries that we announce air bridges for being allowed.
I would also expect airlines to run promotions as soon as this is announced. I will bring any special offers to you as soon as they appear. And if my predictions prove to be correct, you can all buy Mystic Michele a drink at the next reader event!!
If you want to check country entry requirements or quarantine, for the EU there is this page or worldwide there is IATA’s page.
5 comments
Doesn’t it make sense to quarantine UK travellers? Our infection levels are still significantly higher than those of countries like Germany / France / Spain.
It does but these countries rely on tourism so if you quarantine people you effectively stop people coming.
Are they? Through the who debacle of this flu season i would not trust any govts. figures. Look at China for example. No one can take those figures seriously!
‘…you can all buy Mystic Michele a drink at the next reader event’
Mystic Michele is likely to be very merry at the next event 🙂
Somebody pls remind this Govt of the UKs standing in the global pandemic league table. What a carry on.
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