Spain extends its travel ban to visitors from South Africa

On Tuesday, Spain’s Health Minister Carolina Darias announced an extension of the country’s travel ban on visitors from South Africa, Brazil and the United Kingdom.

Spain is concerned about rising numbers of infections from the new COVID-19 variants. The country has been hard hit by the Coronavirus pandemic, with more than 63,000 deaths from more than three million cases of the infection to date.

On Friday, Spain confirmed its first case of the Brazilian variant, two cases of the South African variant and 479 cases of the British variant of the virus.

NEW VARIANTS PROMPT TRAVEL BAN

The discovery that the AstraZeneca vaccine provides limited protection against the COVID-19 variant that is prevalent in South Africa has raised concerns for many countries. Travel bans are being extended all the time.

This has also prompted Spain to extend its travel ban on visitors from South Africa. The Spanish government fears the new variants may spread more easily if a travel ban is not in place to limit the entry of visitors from high-risk nations.

SPAIN RESTRICTS ENTRY TO THREE NATIONS

The Local, a site for English speakers in Spain, reports that Spanish officials predict the British variant of the virus could become the dominant strain of the virus in Spain by March. The Spanish government has responded by blocking passengers from South Africa, Brazil and the UK until 2 March.

Only Spanish citizens, foreign nationals  with Spanish residence permits and residents of Andorra are permitted to enter Spain at this time.  

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