The corona numbers in Spain are increasing sharply. For this reason, Germany is now classifying the entire country as a risk area again. Above all, however, the possible next step is worrying.
Berlin / Madrid – All of Spain with Mallorca as the Germans’ favorite holiday island is again a corona risk area. The federal government reacted with this classification, which will apply from Sunday, to the sharp increase in the number of new corona infections.
Travel is in fact not made more difficult because holidaymakers returning by plane have already had to submit a negative test. But for Spain, which is heavily dependent on tourism, it could turn out to be damaging to the image that the Foreign Office advises against tourist trips to the country again in the middle of the summer holidays. This raises concerns in the tourism industry, which, however, creates a far worse scenario for sleepless nights.
Seven-day incidence over 50
Should the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants rise to over 200 within seven days (seven-day incidence) for a longer period of time, Spain faces the same fate as Cyprus. The also very popular holiday island was classified as a high incidence area because of its particularly high number of infections. Anyone who is on vacation there and has not been vaccinated or recovered will have to be in quarantine for five to ten days when they return – even if the test is negative. Should the same happen to Spain, where the seven-day incidence is now at 199, it would be a hard blow to the tourism industry.
But for now it stays with the risk area, to which countries and regions are declared, in which the seven-day incidence is over 50. In the Balearic Islands, which include Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera as well as Mallorca, the incidence is already three times as high at 153. There were only a few major national restrictions on public life.
Tourism minister questions orientation to infection numbers
The corona hotspot Barcelona, for example, initially severely restricted nightlife over the weekend. At the same time, however, a music festival with up to 18,000 spectators took place in the tourist metropolis – with test and mask, but without any distance. German vacationers on Mallorca told the German Press Agency that they would feel at least as safe as at home on the island.
Spain’s Minister of Tourism María Reyes Maroto, meanwhile, raised the question of whether orientation based on the number of infections was still the right way to go. The incidence as a measure of risk is becoming less important in view of the high vaccination rate and the low number of corona patients in hospitals, the minister said. The high numbers of infections are registered primarily in young people who either developed no or only mild symptoms of the disease. The authorities are closely monitoring the situation. Holidays in Spain are definitely safe. dpa
