Is it safe to travel to Portugal?

Simon Calder answers your questions on continuing with holiday plans, exemption of travel restrictions and Nigel Farage

Swimming in the Algarve is more risky than the coronavirus threat (iStock)

Q I read your article about the Portuguese ambassador asking for an “air bridge” with the UK so that holidaymakers don’t need to quarantine when they come home. We have a long-planned family holiday in the Algarve at the end of July. But even if the quarantine is lifted, along with the Foreign Office travel advice against non-essential travel, I still feel anxious about the prospect. Can you convince me it is safe, and tell me how to minimise any risk?

Name supplied

A I certainly won’t try to convince you that any activity is safe, whether or not coronavirus is involved. I strongly believe, however, that the potential rewards of a holiday in Portugal – or almost anywhere else – outweigh the very low risks. I assume you would follow all the obvious protocols for minimising virus transmission. The two most important are to keep washing your hands fastidiously, and not to travel anywhere if you feel remotely unwell.

The medical consensus is that wearing a face covering, as you are required to do in almost any transport context nowadays, will not offer you any significant risk reduction but may reduce any danger to other people if you are carrying the virus. Social distancing, too, can help cut the chance of transmission – but be warned that staying two metres apart from other people is unachievable in an airport or aboard an aircraft with a normal passenger load.

If you or anyone in your family group is in a high-risk category, then you should consider very carefully whether to travel. Remember the main indicator of the threat level is age. Young people are extremely unlikely to become seriously ill if they contract Covid-19, but the danger increases sharply for people in their seventies and older.

In the hope that I have convinced you that the risk is tolerably low, once in Portugal please do not focus exclusively on coronavirus in terms of threats to the safety of you and your family. I hope to travel there next month, too, and will be primarily concerned about traffic accidents – Portugal has a terrible record compared with the UK – and swimming. Accidents on the road and in the water remain the biggest risks to British travellers abroad.

Merchandise vendors wearing masks at the BOK Centre in Tulsa, Oklahoma (Getty)

Q I saw that Nigel Farage attended Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa at the weekend. Can Europeans get in the US now?

Jim S

A Not the vast majority of us. A tiny number can, but they must fall into one of a very few specific categories. Since mid-March British nationals “who have been physically present within the United Kingdom” within the previous 14 days have been banned from the US. A similar rule applies to travellers from the European Union. We are all regarded as “Persons Who Pose a Risk of Transmitting Coronavirus”. This is clearly absurd in the context of the terrifying levels of infection in the US compared with, say, Greece.

The main categories of exemptions are, according to the Foreign Office, “limited categories of visa holders (such as UN staff and diplomats)”. To stand a chance of being let in, you would need an A visa, which indicates you are a diplomat or foreign government official, or an H-1B visa – indicating “specialty occupations in fields requiring highly specialised knowledge”. The normal visa for business travel is a B-1, and for tourism a B-2. Neither would qualify – and nor would an Esta, the standard online permit that most European travellers use for visits to the US.

When Mr Farage tried check-in at Heathrow on Friday 19 June, he was initially denied boarding because he did not qualify. Presumably, a few phone calls took place at that stage, because a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson later told The Independent that the Brexit Party leader was deemed to be an “alien whose entry would be in the national interest” of the US. Mr Farage will find that his travel insurance is not valid because he is travelling against Foreign Office advice.

Assuming the UK quarantine measures are still in force by the time he returns, the politician will be required to go straight home and self-isolate there for two weeks. There is no equivalent in the UK quarantine law of America’s “get out” clause. The Brexit campaigner will no doubt follow the requirement to stay indoors for 14 days, which will be a relief for the British public after his visit to a country with an atrocious record for dealing with coronavirus.

Ministers have hinted that certain countries may become exempt to restrictions (Getty)

Q There are lots of rumours about different countries which may or may not be part of “air bridges” to avoid the new quarantine restrictions. Have you heard of any mention of Switzerland being included?

Peter D

A The quarantine policy that took effect on 8 June for arrivals to the UK officially remains in place until next summer. The conditions that the government cites as justification for the policy – a falling rate in the UK, and lockdown easing abroad – are likely to prevail for many months. So, logically, quarantine should probably remain in place for the rest of the year.

But as you may know, the entire travel industry and many MPs are furious about the harm the quarantine policy is causing to businesses and individuals, and want it either axed or neutralised.

Ministers have hinted that so-called “air bridges” or “travel corridors” will allow returning holidaymakers from the most popular destinations to be exempt from quarantine.

According to the government, these are: “Agreements between countries who both have low transmission rates to recognise each other’s departure screening measures for passengers and removing the need for quarantine measures for incoming passengers.”

Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and Greece look to be certainties for reciprocal deals. But non-EU countries with smaller numbers of tourists, including Switzerland, Iceland and Morocco, are thought unlikely to benefit from the first wave of agreements. I have not heard Switzerland mentioned in any of the many rumours that are flying around.

Supposing a deal was struck with France, as seems very likely. Because two of the three main Swiss air hubs, Basel and Geneva, straddle French territory and have direct access from France, passengers on flights from these airports would be taken on trust to declare if they had actually been in Switzerland.

Ironically, Basel airport is actually connected to the city it serves by a genuine travel corridor: a road cutting through French territory with high fencing on either side.