Spain is removed from UK safe list

HOLIDAYMAKERS returning from Spain will have to quarantine for 14 days after Covid second wave fears convinced ministers to remove the European country from the UK’s safe list.

The so-called “travel corridor” with Spain has been shut down after it reported more than 900 new daily infections for the past two days.

The decision means those coming back from the popular holiday destination will have to self-isolate for two weeks upon their return to UK after all four administrations – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – opted to join forces over the move. The fresh measures came into effect at midnight last night.

A UK Government spokesman said: “The Joint Biosecurity Centre together with Public Health England have updated their coronavirus assessments of Spain based on the latest data. As a result, Spain has been removed from the lists of countries from which passengers arriving in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are exempted from the need to self-isolate.

“Protecting public health is our absolute priority and we have taken this decision to limit any potential spread to the UK.

“Both our list of quarantine exemptions and the FCO travel advice are being updated to reflect these latest risk assessments.”

The reintroduction of quarantine measures will apply to those returning from mainland Spain, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, such as Palma and Ibiza, the Department for Transport (DfT) confirmed.

The Foreign Office is now advising against all but essential travel to mainland Spain.

Meanwhile holidaymakers still hoping to escape abroad this summer could see their plans hit by delays to passport and birth registrations alongside restrictive travel quarantine rules.

Earlier this week it was revealed that HM Passport Office (HMPO) workers faced a backlog of more than 400,000 applications as a result of delays caused by the coronavirus crisis.

On Friday HMPO said it had issued more than 6,500 passports for individuals “on compassionate and emergency grounds”.

It also committed to fasttracking applications for people with pre-existing travel bookings.