Spain has announced it will launch a Digital Covid Certificate for visitors from July 1 to coincide with its lifting of Covid restrictions on all visitors from the UK.
President Pedro Sánchez confirmed the certificate would restore mobility across the EU following the news last week that UK holidaymakers would be allowed to enter the country without any restrictions.
In a further announcement, the president said all travellers that have been fully vaccinated against Covid could enter Spain without any need for quarantine of negative tests.
Snr Sanchez said; "With the Digital Covid Certificate, Spain will resume all its economic activity safely and we will achieve mobility within the European Union this summer."
The president stressed it should not be treated as a passport, nor travel document, and it is not a requirement for travel.
"It is a mechanism that will facilitate mobility, as well as arrival and passenger transit, and which will be launched as of July 1,” he specified.
The certificate will include a QR code to confirm whether the person travelling is vaccinated, has contracted the disease, or has a negative PCR test result. In Spain. It will be available in electronic or paper format.
"This is, without a doubt, great news” the president added.
Thousands of UK holidaymakers are set to jet to Spain and its islands this week following the confirmation that the country was opening its borders to most international visitors.
However, Spain and its islands remain on the Government amber list of destinations meaning holidaymakers must quarantine and take a series of Covid tests on return to the UK.
But Britons were urged not to travel to Spain after Madrid opened the doors to tourists from the UK.
Business minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Sky News: “The Prime Minister has been clear that, for now, amber means ‘please don’t go unless there is an urgent family reason and so on’ because we are still trying to slowly move through our road map to being able to open up on June 21 and we want to do that in a steady and careful way.”
She added that “we hope very much that, obviously, the amber numbers will become more green in due course” but “at the moment, today, that means amber countries really aren’t safe to go to”.
