Corona: Travel warning now for all of Spain

Christine Albert studied German linguistics and literature as well as Scandinavian studies at the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg. She is currently doing a traineeship at Hubert Burda Media and is writing, among other things, for

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In the Corona hotspot Spain, the Canaries have had a special position so far because of relatively low cases. But the infections there have been increasing rapidly for a short time now. And that has consequences: After the mainland and the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands are now also considered risk areas. And the Foreign Office warns against traveling there.

On the Canaries, which until recently were largely spared by the corona virus, the pandemic is now ringing the alarm bells. And very loudly: with 300 cases per day during the past week, the regional health authorities in Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) recently reported a sharp increase in the number of infections. For the entire Canary Islands, this number was more than 95 within seven days.

No longer a special position

The Atlantic islands belonging to Spain therefore promptly lost their previous special position on Wednesday and were put on the list of risk areas by Germany. The rest of Spain - including the Balearic Islands popular with Germans and the holiday island of Mallorca - had been listed there since mid-August.

At the same time, the Federal Foreign Office issued a travel warning - including a quarantine obligation for vacationers after their return home. This will deal a "death blow" to the already badly ailing tourism industry, which has a share of around 35 percent of regional income, as a TV commentator emphasized a few days ago. Because despite the special position, the Canary Islands already had "desolation" and "despair" before the Berlin decision, as the newspaper "El Día" recently wrote.

You can find out more about what constitutes travel warnings and risk areas and what that means for holidaymakers in our article "Corona: Travel advice or risk area?".

"Drastic" restrictions

The Canarian regional president Ángel Víctor Torres had announced new restrictions a few days ago in view of the negative development, which he called "drastic". On the particularly badly affected islands of Gran Canaria and Lanzarote, events with more than ten participants have been banned until September 11th.

Restaurants and bars have to close at midnight. In the entire region, it is mandatory to wear a mask at work. The police are said to have more officials to ensure that the 2.15 million inhabitants of the islands comply with the regulations.

Few German vacationers

Although the Canary Islands had been the only region in Spain for which Berlin had not yet issued a travel warning since mid-August, relatively few Germans continued to travel to Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote or any other part of the archipelago. The head of the Hoteliers Association of Gran Canaria (FEHT), José María Mañaricúa, described the situation of the accommodation operators on all the islands as "dramatic".

In the first half of the year, the Canary Islands' economy collapsed by a good 36 percent compared to the same period in the previous year. In these six months, more than 1200 companies shut down mainly because of Corona. With 2.65 million visitors last year, Germany is the second largest market for the Canaries after Great Britain (around five million) and before Spain (around two million).

London had already ordered quarantine for all returnees to Spain on July 26th. The travel warning from Germany is now the next very hard blow, especially for the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, where tourism is the main source of income like nowhere else in Spain. (approx / dpa)

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