Spain Announces Plan to Create Travel Corridors with UK

Spain has announced plans to create safe travel corridors despite having the fastest rise in daily confirmed cases of coronavirus in Europe, The Independent report.

In a bid to relieve the popular destination’s devastated tourism industry, Arancha González Laya, the country’s foreign minister, has said that Spain intends to negotiate with the UK, Germany and Scandinavian countries to open up travel corridors to the Spanish Balearic and Canary islands without the need for visitors to quarantine upon return to their home country, El Pais reported.

Although the peak holiday season is drawing to a close on the Spanish mainland, the Canary Islands, located off the west coast of Africa, are now entering their busiest period.

This follows a recent decision to introduce self-isolation measures for some UK travellers returning from a handful of Greek islands, but not the Greek mainland.

Spain, the Canary and Balearic Islands were all removed from the UK’s “safe” list of countries at the end of July, with Brits returning from these destinations subject to quarantine measures of 14 days.

Earlier this week, Spain became the first western European country to record more than half a million coronavirus cases, reporting a total of 525,549 infections.

The country has the fastest rise in daily confirmed cases in Europe, following a surge in infections following the return of millions of children to school.

Despite having a lower incidence of Covid-19 cases, the Canary Islands have been subject to country-wide restrictions on travel to Spain imposed by foreign governments.

Fernando Simón, the head of Spain’s centre for health emergencies, has acknowledged the rise in infections, but emphasised that half of these new cases are asymptomatic and more than half are in people aged under 40.