Mail Online

TANTASTIC! SPAIN MAY MISS AMBER-PLUS LIST

By Daniel Martin Policy Editor

SPAIN is not expected to be added to the amber-plus list despite growing concern about the Beta variant.

A decision will be made on August 5 and if Spain stays on the amber list it will mean holidaymakers will not have to quarantine on return.

Government sources expect France to go back to the amber list at the same time.

At present double-jabbed holidaymakers returning from France must quarantine for up to ten days because it is on the amber-plus list. But fully vaccinated travellers arriving in the UK from amber-list countries can sidestep quarantine.

There are growing concerns about the increasing number of cases in Spain involving the more vaccine-resistant Beta, or South African, variant.

Some 3.7 per cent of cases in France in the past four weeks have been due to the Beta variant, compared with 6.9 per cent in Spain. Some experts questioned whether UK officials could have confused the prevalence of Beta in mainland France and in its overseas territories, which include the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, and Reunion in the Indian Ocean. An estimated 90 per cent of cases in Reunion are Beta at present.

A Whitehall source said: ‘There is growing confidence that France can soon go back on the amber list. [But] there remains some concern about the prevalence of the Beta variant in Spain, although we do not yet have the latest data and... no decision has yet been taken.’

Labour said the holiday plans of nearly six million Britons could be ruined if Spain and Greece were added to the amber-plus list.

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

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2021-07-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

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