COVID-19: Spain considering to impose quarantine on UK visitors, says FM

As Spain is all set to reopen its borders in the coming week, Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya reportedly said that the country might impose mandatory quarantine on visitors from the United Kingdom. Arancha’s statement comes after Britain imposed a similar policy for travellers in the UK. While speaking to an international media outlet, the Spanish Foreign Minister said that she hopes that Britain would lift its restrictions, ‘making a reciprocal Spanish one unnecessary’. 

Spain and Britain, both have been hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the British government announced that all international travellers, including the returning UK residents, will have to self-isolate for 14 days, the Spanish government said that they are also considering to introduce a quarantine for UK visitors. However, Arancha reportedly also said that the authorities will be in a dialogue with the British government to see whether or not they should be introducing ‘reciprocity’ as the UK has different measures than the rest of the European Union. 

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UK-Spain to ‘engage’ in dialogue 

While calling the situation ‘fluid’, the Spanish foreign minister also added that the government was keen to ‘properly engage’ in a dialogue with Britain in a bid to be sure that both the countries take the message that best corresponds to the health situation. Arancha’s statement also comes weeks after the country’s tourism minister said that Spain hopes to welcome back British visitors, but still needed greater clarity from the British authority. 

READ: Spain Makes Face Masks Mandatory Until COVID-19 Pandemic Is Defeated

As of June 14, the Spanish authorities had not mentioned any quarantine curbs, however, the government announced to prepone the date for allowing European visitors back into the country to June 21 from July 1. As both the countries are struggling to contain the virus outbreak, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak reportedly said that the 14-day quarantine period would be kept under review. He also added that the British government was ‘looking at all options’, including opening up travel corridors with other countries. 

Meanwhile, Spain, on the other hand, will reportedly open its border to countries which are not part of the Schengen area from July 1. The opening of borders to 25 countries in the European regions Schengen area will also coincide with the end of the nation’s state of emergency on June 21. Currently, as per Johns Hopkins University tally, Spain has nearly 244,109 confirmed coronavirus cases and the deadly virus has claimed more than 27,000 lives in the country. Meanwhile, the UK has over 298,000 COVID-19 cases and the death toll stands at 41,821. 

(Image: @dexcyguedez/Twitter) 

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