Can my daughter travel to Spain after getting Covid?
Simon Calder answers your questions on PCR tests, vaccine statuses, and where to go to beat the January blues
Q We were hoping to travel to Spain in the half-term break but my 12-year-old daughter has recently had Covid. She is unvaccinated and will need to provide a negative PCR for arrival in Spain. As she is only just out of her quarantine period, I think it’s likely her PCR will produce a false positive. Is there any way round this or do we just accept we’re not going?
Ruth P
A Sorry to hear about your predicament and your daughter's recent coronavirus infection. I hope she is feeling better.
Looking at two separate instructions from the UK government, I can understand your concerns ahead of your trip to Spain.
On people who have recently recovered from Covid, the advice is: “If someone has tested positive with a PCR test, they should not be tested using either PCR or rapid lateral flow tests for 90 days, unless they develop new symptoms during this time.”
For travel to Spain, the Foreign Office advice is that people who are unvaccinated require documentation certifying that they “have undertaken a Covid-19 nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) within 72 hours prior to arrival in Spain and tested negative”.
PCR is the leading type of NAAT. The Royal College of Pathologists, which produces an excellent guide to the various Covid-19 test, says “PCR tests can detect very tiny amounts of RNA, meaning they are extremely sensitive. They are the best test for current infection.”
But there are other options. Ahead of your trip to Spain, your daughter can take a Lamp test. The college says that the Lamp variety "are more accurate than lateral flow tests”. But they are still not as sensitive as PCR tests, and anecdotal evidence I have heard from people in a similar position to you is that your daughter is unlikely to give a “false positive” result on a Lamp test.
Lamp tests also have the advantage of being much faster, with results in a couple of hours – compared with typically much longer times for PCRs
Anyway, by the time half-term begins, it is possible that Spain may downgrade the requirement for unvaccinated British visitors to a lateral flow test – cheaper and less sensitive. Please don't book any tests until very shortly before departure in case the rules ease. There is no benefit in booking early.
Q Where to go for a week in January?
“Romford Reggie”
A Naturally the answer depends on what you want from a trip. I shall hazard a guess that you are seeking an escape from the depths of winter to a location somewhere closer to the equator than is Romford (52 degrees north) – where you can enjoy warmth and relaxation in convivial surroundings.
The closest location that I suggest is somewhere on the sweep of Mediterranean shore between Nice (44 degrees north) and Genoa – bright, scenic and cultured, with the added benefit of some of the world’s greatest cuisines. This lovely corner will not be exactly cheap. So if you are prepared to stay on a plane for an hour longer, the deep south of Spain should fit the bill.
I adore Malaga (37 degrees north), a great city with a reasonable beach attached if the weather is good. When it is inclement you can explore a fabulous collection of art, shopping and restaurants. There’s the chance to visit two of the other great Andalusian cities – Cordoba and Seville – in 90 minutes and under two hours respectively by train.
Hammamet in Tunisia is the same latitude and has much to recommend it: a gorgeous old town, good beaches nearby and an easy rail connection to Tunis and onward to Carthage.
In the Mediterranean you cannot, however, expect unremitting sunshine and must-splash temperatures. Gran Canaria’s Las Palmas (28 north) has a more appealing midwinter climate than mainland Spain, though the Atlantic can bring some fierce weather. Which is leading me to Egypt. Sharm El Sheikh shares the same latitude as the Canary Islands, but gently bakes in the Red Sea heat.
If, though, I can persuade you to forsake sea for antiquity, then the two small Nile cities of Luxor (26 north) and Aswan (24 north, almost in the tropics) are even surer bets for sunshine as well as deep, deep history in a relaxed setting.
Your final choice will also be influenced, I imagine, by the prevailing coronavirus-related rules – so I suggest you don't commit to anything until December at the earliest. There will always be space in January.
Q Here’s a question that I have not been able to answer from any source. You are my last hope. I am coming from a non-red list country and my vaccine status is not currently recognised by the UK. I’m arriving from abroad to the UK and leaving on the same day, but with a change of airports from Newcastle to Edinburgh. In other words, I am making a “landside” transit, but crossing the Anglo-Scottish border.
The question is: will I need to book day two and day eight tests?
Yan U
A As an unrecognised vaccinee, you will need to take a test (lateral flow will do) before travelling to England. But after working through the process my interpretation is that you need not book any Covid tests. You would need to do so only if you intended to stay.
The transit rules for changing planes (or international train or ferries) wholly within England are clear. When you transit in England between international locations, you need not quarantine on arrival or take a Covid-19 test on or before day two and day eight if you “travel directly from your port of entry to another port of departure in England”.
However UK the passenger locator form does not allow for this possibility, instead having a box to tick called “Change flights in the UK within 24 hours, without going through UK border control”. I recommend you tick this box because the alternative would be “I plan to stay in the UK” and you then need to book tests.
I have worked through the entire passenger locator form process for you, making a dummy application, and there was no problem raised when entering Newcastle and departing from Edinburgh. As you say it is all on the same day, I can see no problem.
I have studied the applicable legislation and can see no reference to Anglo-Scottish transit in any of the legislation, you will be travelling through Scotland solely to board an international departure. You must, though travel direct from Newcastle airport to Edinburgh airport – sightseeing in either city is out.
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