Germany’s travel advice to Spain increases pressure over UK’s blanket quarantine

Berlin tells citizens not to go to Covid-hit parts of country, but does not restrict visits to holiday islands

Germany has increased pressure on the UK over its imposition of a blanket quarantine on travellers returning from Spain, by issuing advice to its nationals only to avoid areas of the country currently experiencing coronavirus spikes.

Crucially, the advice from Berlin does not restrict travel to the Balearic and Canary Islands, where infection rates are lower than in either Britain or Germany.

Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez has denounced the UK’s action – which includes Foreign Office advice against all but essential travel to the popular holiday islands as well as to the mainland – as “unjust” and is seeking a rethink from London.

But local government minister Simon Clarke this morning said the UK “respectfully disagrees” with Mr Sanchez’s position that it was an “error” to treat the whole of Spain in the same way, despite widely varying infection rates between hotspots like Barcelona and the low-risk Balearics – Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca – and Canaries.

Health minister Lord Bethell told the House of Lords on Monday that it was impossible for the UK to operate varying quarantine regimes for people visiting different parts of Spain.

He appeared to reveal as he did so that his own holiday plans had been disrupted by Saturday’s announcement of a 14-day self-isolation period for those returning from Spain, which has already forced transport secretary Grant Shapps to cut short his break.

“Within individual countries, there is no way for us to control intra-country transport,” Lord Bethell told peers.

“It is therefore very difficult and challenging to have a regional exemption list. That is why we have not been able to give exemptions to the Balearics, and I say that with a personal interest in the matter.”

However, Germany’s advice, issued today, draws a clear distinction between the areas of Catalonia, Navarre and Aragon, where case numbers ballooned last week, and the rest of Spain.

“We currently advise against unnecessary tourist trips to the autonomous communities of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre due to high infection numbers and local lockdowns,” the ministry said on its website.

The announcement – coupled with similar advice from Belgium – was denounced as “discriminatory” by a senior minister in the Aragon regional government, Mayte Perez, who urged the Spanish foreign ministry to make a formal complaint.

Ms Perez said the Covid-19 pandemic was under control in most parts of her region and that tourism operators had made huge efforts to guarantee health safety.

Catalonia’s government said it regretted the German action, adding in a statement: “We do not get into evaluating the decisions by other countries but we obviously don’t share it.”

Mr Clarke said the UK government disagrees with Mr Sanchez’s assessment that imposing a quarantine on travellers from Spain was disproportionate.

“Obviously we continue to work very closely with the Spanish authorities and wish them every success in getting this situation under control as quickly as possible,” said the minister.

Spain’s rise in Covid-19 cases has prompted most regions to impose rules for masks to be worn everywhere and in several areas, including Barcelona, calls for people to stay at home.

Meanwhile, the head of a German research body warned that “negligence” had led to a steady rise of new infections in the country and warned that it was unclear if a second wave was under way.

“The new developments in Germany make me very worried,” said Lothar Wieler of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.

“The rise has to do with the fact that we have become negligent.”

The number of daily new cases almost doubled on Tuesday to 633, and the RKI, which is Germany’s most closely followed compiler of Covid-19 data, linked that to increased contact at parties and the workplace.

Mr Wieler said that social-distancing rules should be observed as strictly during holiday breaks as at home or in the workplace.

“It is irrelevant if you are on holiday or at home,” he said. “The holiday is as much a part of the precautions against the spread of Covid-19 as your work and home life. The setting is irrelevant.”