Alex Trelinski
SPAIN has scrapped the requirement for children aged 12 and over travelling from the UK to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The move comes after hotel and tourist groups across the country demanded a change as British families turned elsewhere for half-term holiday breaks, and even further ahead in the year.
The rules will change from midnight on February 14, when UK youngsters between 12 and 18 who don’t have a full vaccination record can instead produce a negative PCR test taken 72 hours before travelling.
Children aged under 12 don’t need a PCR test or vaccination record.
A decree announcing the change was published this Friday by Spain’s Ministry of the Interior.
The decree stated: “Vaccination a tool to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, hence in order to promote its use and, likewise, link it to facilitating international mobility, it was included as one of the categories exempt from restrictions..”
“However, in many countries there are difficulties or even the impossibility of getting the vaccine for people aged under 18, and consequently it is no considered convenient to establish specific conditions for these people.”
The Hotel Business Federation of Mallorca said that ‘this is a key moment when family trips are being sold for Easter and the summer’-
The Tarragona Hotel and Tourism Business Federation backed up that view by stating that the ‘British are very far-sighted over their bookings’.
READ MORE:
- ‘Last wave’ of COVID-19 as Health Minister says virus is ‘already disappearing’ in Spain
- TRAVEL UPDATE: Do I need a COVID-19 booster shot to travel to Spain?
- EXPLAINER: The areas of Spain that still use COVID-19 passports and where you have to show them
