Spain hopes Balearic and Canary Islands will be freed from UK quarantine ‘today’

Spain's Tourism Minister has urged the UK to lift its quarantine rules on the Balearic and Canary Islands as early as "today".

The country and its two archipelagos have been removed from Britain’s list of travel corridors after the region saw a spike in coronavirus cases.

But Spanish ministers are now striving to convince Downing Street to exempt the islands from the blanket measures, since they have not suffered the same worrying resurgence of the disease as the mainland.

The Canary Islands have confirmed a total of 2,483 cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, while the Balearics have recorded 2,290.

Ms Maroto told reporters on Monday: "We've been talking all weekend.

"What we'd like is for quarantines to be lifted on the islands as early as possible and we hope it will be today rather than tomorrow."

Her comments came after the country's Foreign Minister said ministers were working hard to get the so-called "air bridge" between the UK and the islands reinstated.

Arancha Gonzalez Laya told reporters on Sunday: “At the moment our dialogue efforts are focused on excluding from the quarantine measures the Balearic and the Canary Islands.”

She continued: “[This is] for two reasons – number one, these are islands, very safe territories; number two, their epidemiological data is extremely positive and well below epidemiological data in the UK.

“We do hope that this dialogue we have started with the UK authorities, together with the governments of the Balearic and Canary Islands, will bear fruit shortly.”

There has been some confusion over the archipelagos’ situation, with Foreign Office (FCO) guidance seeming to contradict the quarantine rules.

Unlike with Spain, the FCO is not advising against non-essential travel to the tourist hotspots.

However, like Spain, travellers from the islands will be forced to self-isolate for 14 days upon arriving in the UK.

The Government has been criticised for its use of the “blunt tool” of sweeping quarantines rather than more "nuanced" measures.

Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called for the introduction of “smarter measures” to prevent the spread of the virus.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think you need a smarter set of quarantine measures at the airport.

“I’ve suggested this test, trace and isolate regime but you can also have temperature checking and other things – you look at a range of measures.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Flintham, managing director of TUI UK and Ireland, called for a “more nuanced policy” to include rules based on regions as well as countries.

Pointing to the FCO guidance, Mr Flintham told Sky News: “If the Balearics are still OK to go to – and clearly the travel advice says you can travel – should we have a different quarantine or no quarantine for those and not lump it all together, as in one big total Spain quarantine?

“We’re really after a little bit of a nuance because, being honest, going forward, with something like the United States, it could be there’s a problem in Florida but not in California, and you wouldn’t want to close the whole of the United States to tourists.”

Tui has cancelled all holidays to mainland Spain up to and including August 9.

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