Spain is confident new UK 'air bridge' talks will "bear fruit in very near future".
Spain's Foreign Minister confirmed she was in talks with the British government to secure the Balearic Islands and the Canaries a quarantine exemption.
Britain’s Foreign Office is only advising against essential travel to the Spanish mainland, even though all British tourists currently returning from Spain have to self-isolate for two weeks in a shock move announced late last night.
In her first comments since the quarantine announcement , Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said: “Spain is a safe country for tourism.
“Like other European countries Spain is suffering new coronavirus outbreaks. That’s not unusual.
“The most important thing here is that Spain is making a great effort to control these outbreaks.”
Saying the three most important outbreaks in Spain at the moment were in the north-east - in Zaragoza, Lleida and Barcelona - she added: “All three outbreaks are under control.
“The autonomous communities are applying early detection protocols agreed with the Spanish government.
“Moreover the Spanish government continues to work with European governments to explain all the measures that are being taken to promote a message of calm and confidence.
“We are also doing this with the British government which has recently adopted quarantine measures towards Spain.
“Our efforts at the moment are focused on efforts to make sure the British government excludes the Canaries and Balearic Islands from that quarantine.”
Insisting the islands were in better shape health-wise than the UK, she said: “The talks are continuing.
“We are conducting the talks in conjunction with the islands’ regional governments and we hope these negotiations bear fruit in the very near future.”
