Laurence Dollimore
SPAIN is negotiating with the UK to have the Canary and Balearic Islands excluded from the quarantine on travellers returning to Britain.
The whole of Andalucia and the Costa del Sol are excluded from the talks being conducted by foreign affairs minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya.
“Our efforts at the moment are focused on ensuring that the British authorities can exclude the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands from their quarantine measures; in principle responding to the specificity of both, highly controlled island territories and, secondly, attending to epidemiological data in the Balearic and Canary Islands that are far below epidemiological data in the United Kingdom,” Laya said in a statement.
“We are working together with the autonomous governments of the Canary and Balearic Islands and we hope the talks will bear fruit soon.”
Laya insisted that Spain is a safe country.
“Like other European countries, Spain has outbreaks, this is not unusual,” the minister said,”the most important thing is that Spain is making a great effort to control these outbreaks, a huge effort to identify cases in which people are positive for coronavirus.”
The statement added that half of the cases being detected are from asymptomatic people.
“Once these cases have been identified, a great effort is being made to implement social isolation measures,” it read.
In the case of the three major outbreaks in Barcelona, ??Zaragoza and Lerida, Laya insists that all they are all under control and that the autonomous communities are applying the early detection protocols that have been agreed with Madrid.
“Furthermore,” it reads, “the Government of Spain continues to work with European governments to explain all these measures that are being taken, to reassure them and to send a message of confidence; We are also doing it with the country that has recently adopted quarantine measures towards Spain, such as the United Kingdom, and our efforts at the moment are focused on ensuring that the British authorities can exclude the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands from their quarantine measures.”
It comes after the UK announced on Saturday that it would be imposing a mandatory quarantine on all travellers returning from Spain.
Partido Popular representative in Malaga Carolina España has now accused the Spanish government of discriminating against the Costa del Sol for not including the region in the talks, especially given how vital the British market is.
She has vowed to demand answers in Congress.
