Spain will not be placed on the travel red list, because of a significant fall in cases and concerns that there are not enough hotel rooms to quarantine holidaymakers returning to England.
Ministers will announce tomorrow that Spain will remain on the amber list, enabling those who are fully vaccinated to continue to enjoy a quarantine-free return.
The ten-day quarantine for fully vaccinated holidaymakers returning from France will be removed. The country was put on an “amber-plus” list last month in response to concerns about the Beta variant, which ministers believe may be more resistant to vaccines, leading to a diplomatic backlash and a cabinet split.
However, 0.4 per cent of cases in France are now attributed to the Beta variant. Scientists had been concerned about the spread of the Beta variant in Spain, although it now accounts for 0.5 per cent of cases there.
The government also feared that there would not be enough hotel beds to cope with an exodus of travellers from Spain having to quarantine on their return.
Advertisement
Up to ten countries will be added to the green list tomorrow, allowing all travellers to avoid quarantine. They are expected to include Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Poland. Officials had been considering whether Spain should be added to a new amber watchlist, warning holidaymakers that it could soon turn red. Boris Johnson abandoned the plan after opposition from cabinet ministers and Tory MPs, who warned that it could lead to a collapse in summer holiday bookings.
According to the latest figures, the government has booked 58,000 hotel rooms on reserve for the quarantine system. Hundreds of thousands of British tourists are in Spain, the most popular UK holiday destination, and over the next couple of months millions more are expected to visit.
Government insiders said that the hotel quarantine policy would not be sustainable if Spain was added to the red list. A Whitehall source said: “Spain won’t be going on the amber watchlist — the only danger is it going red but that’s very unlikely. Cases are coming down. And they haven’t got enough beds to quarantine everybody. So it’s not going to happen.”
Only British residents or Irish nationals are allowed to travel from the 60 countries on the red list, which includes holiday destinations such as Turkey, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. They are required to isolate in hotels for ten days after their arrival at their own expense and there is no exemption for fully vaccinated travellers.
The Department of Health has struggled to sign new contracts at the same rate as when the hotel quarantine policy was introduced in February because of the huge demand from tourists.
Advertisement
Conservative MPs have been pushing the government to drop the amber and green lists entirely, arguing that the increased number of people who are fully vaccinated makes the distinction irrelevant. They have suggested that only a red list should remain.
Ministers will retain the system, though, as they believe that it remains a useful tool to stopping the spread of coronavirus variants regarded as being of concern.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We closely monitor the managed quarantine service to ensure we have enough capacity for those arriving from a red-list country, and obtain more rooms as needed. We continue to communicate with local authorities and health services as we plan for changing demand.”
