Scots arriving from Spain furious at quarantine rule
SCOTS returning from Spain yesterday told of their fury at having to be in quarantine for 14 days.
The First Minister announced on Wednesday that people would be able to visit 57 countries without being forced to self-isolate on their return.
The so-called ‘air bridges’ allow sunseekers to visit European favourites such as France, Italy and Croatia – but Nicola Sturgeon ruled that Spain was too much of a risk at this time.
It means anyone returning from there, or from Serbia, will have to self-isolate for 14 days.
Many Scots had hoped the air bridges would be in place by the time they returned home and many of them criticised the Scottish Government’s decision.
Arriving in Glasgow from Alicante, Pauline Gilmore, 55, said she had been due to attend her daughter’s wedding in Northern Ireland, but the ceremony has had to be postponed.
She said: ‘It’s a shame. I was in Benidorm meeting up with friends from Northern Ireland and they will be back there long before I can get over.’ Miss Gilmore, from Paisley, Renfrewshire, said Spain appeared more geared up to deal with the spread of the virus than Scotland.
She added: ‘They are taking it all much more seriously. At Benidorm, they have the beaches all squared out with two-metre spaces.
‘The police stop you and tell you to put on a mask. I will quarantine perfectly fine but I think this situation is unnecessary.’
Mary Turner-Jones, 66, and her husband David, 67, from Glasgow, had a break near Murcia but the quarantine rules meant they decided to come back early.
She said: ‘There is no virus there and the Spanish were all being very compliant with wearing masks and socially distancing.’
Mr Turner-Jones said: ‘I am pretty annoyed about this and unhappy with Nicola Sturgeon.
‘I think not including Spain among the safe countries was an overreaction. There are hotspots but
‘Unhappy with Nicola Sturgeon’
not at the tourist areas where everyone is behaving well.’
For Jim and Ann Sinclair, who live in Spain most of the year, the order to quarantine will mean time away from their three grandchildren after arriving from Alicante.
Mr Sinclair, 64, of Whitburn, West Lothian, said: ‘We have two grandkids in Scotland and one in England. We would normally have them to stay at our house in Scotland for a week and then take them to Spain for a summer holiday. But all that is being delayed.’
Mrs Sinclair, 62, said: ‘What has been most frustrating is that the Government cannot just pick a line and stick with it.’
One family of four waiting to fly out to Malaga with Ryanair yesterday said they were pinning their hopes on the rules changing again before they fly home.
Passengers arriving at Edinburgh Airport on the first flight to arrive from Spain were resigned to having to quarantine.
Retired couple Mike and Linda Goldsmith, from Inverness, were among 24 passengers on the flight from Fuerteventura yesterday. Mrs Goldsmith, 67, said: ‘We’re quite happy going into quarantine – we were probably going to do it anyway because we’ve been away for a while. We’ve got provisions ordered for when we get home.’
Yesterday, Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw challenged Miss Sturgeon to open up the Spanish islands, saying they ‘all have a very low incidence of Covid – in some cases, significantly lower than Scotland has’.
He added: ‘Such a measure would be welcomed by many Scots, who understand the need to balance the actions that she took arising from the incidence of Covid in mainland Spain with the risk here just as much as we do.’
However, Miss Sturgeon said that the Scottish Government has ‘sufficient data broken down to subdivide Spain’.