Brits hoping for a summer holiday in Spain have been warned that its Balearic Islands may close again to foreign tourists if the rate of Covid-19 infection increases.
Although the UK government is changing quarantine rules, trips to Ibiza, Majorca, Menorca and Formentera could be off the card if the situation there changes.
Around 20 outbreaks have been recorded across more than 10 regions of Spain just a week after the country reopened its borders to international tourism, the Mirror reports.
A cluster in Malaga at a Red Cross centre has seen 90 people test positive for coronavirus, a local paper reported on June 26.
In mid-June, thousands of German tourists flew into Majorca, as part of a pilot scheme for new coronavirus measures, a week before the country reopened to tourists last Sunday.
Now regional government health minister Patricia Gomez, whose remit also covers Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, has warned that a new shutdown cannot be ruled out.
She told Majorca newspaper Diario de Mallorca: “We will definitely have small outbreaks of Covid-19.
“If we have an important outbreak among tourists this summer, we may have to consider closing the island again.”
She said she was more concerned about a new outbreak this summer, rather than in winter, adding: “I’m more worried about summer in terms of us becoming more relaxed about security.
“We’ll have to see how the virus behaves and whether it is weakened by the heat.
“I am concerned there will be more cases during the holiday season.”
Tourists who test positive whilst abroad and are forced to quarantine could also need to pay for the costs.
She told the paper: “We will bill health costs like we always do. Both for Europeans with a European Health Insurance Card and non-EU citizens.”
Asked who would be expected to pay quarantine accommodation, she added: “That is something we still have to look at.”
