By Laura Taylor • Published: 02 Aug 2020 • 16:50
Credit Boris Johnson Facebook
Boris Johnson has enforced a mandatory quarantine for all passengers arriving to the UK from Spain. However, the UK surpasses Spain in the number of COVID cases as well as in the number of deaths, so why does Boris still say no to travel in the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca? Although the number of coronavirus cases in Spain is increasing due to the growth of serval contained regional outbreaks, there is a significantly larger number of coronavirus cases in the UK. Currently, in Spain there have been 288,522 cases whilst in the UK the number of cases surpasses the 300,000 mark. A similar pattern is seen in the fatality rate as in Spain there have been 28,445 deaths as a result of COVID-19 and in England, there have been at least 46,196 deaths. From August 1, the global balance of Covid-19 is a total of 17,600,740 infected people, including 679,600 deceased. Another important perspective that should be considered when measuring the impact of the coronavirus crisis is the number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. From this perspective, Spain has the fifth-worst amount of deaths, surpassed by other European countries like San Marino, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Andorra. Therefore, it begs the question, why won’t Boris lift the mandatory quarantine for travellers returning to the UK from Spain. It makes sense to discourage travel to certain areas of Spain such as Madrid, Cataluña, Navarra, and Aragon who are all suffering from severe outbreaks. It does not make sense to punish the areas such as Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol who have thrived from British tourism and vice versa.
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Laura Taylor is a graduate from the University of Leeds. At university, she obtained a Bachelors in Communication and Media, as well as a Masters in International Relations. She is half British and half Spanish and resides in Malaga. Her focus when writing news typically encompasses national Spanish news and local news from the Costa del Sol.
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The UK have tested more than Spain for quite a while now. See the link below for yourself https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104645/covid19-testing-rate-select-countries-worldwide/ So the UK tests nearly twice the rate, but currently has less than a third of the cases Spain has. In other words Spain has 6x. the spread – but for some reason you think this should be ignored!! And please don’t be so naive. There is nothing to stop Spaniards, living in the hot spots visiting, the Costa’s or the Island’s. Unless you’re going to try and tell me that everyone stays within 5m of their home within these hotspots and it’s rigorously enforced Spain took its eye off the ball, when, back in the early summer, it managed the suspiciously remarkable feat of seeing lots of cases and then hardly any two weeks later. Any decent statistician / scientist (I’m a degree qualified scientist) could smell a rat and I said so at the time. Spain then incredibly allowed night clubs to open!! Yu may as well as had Covid parties, such was the positive effect on the viral increase Face it Spain was desperate for a holiday season and so decided to more or less abandon testing and then they could turn around to the rest of the world proclaiming it was safe I empathise with every nation who was caught out by this virus, which no-one knew how bad it was until the virus spread was already at it’s peak. Hence, why it was important to draw a line and see how countries handled the next phase. The answer with the likes of Spain, France and Belgium – is very badly When Spain and others dragged their feet letting UK citizens fly to their countries (incidentally, purely based on case numbers as opposed to case numbers divided by number of tests carried out) we didn’t complain. Spain need to realise the problem is all of their own making and resolve it Finally, let’s not be comparing death rates when we’re barely even partly through the pandemic. Very few are convinced, that unlike Belgium and the UK anyone is counting figures transparently. But, yes clearly the UK did ‘worse’ in the first wave – but that’s why you should be applauding Johnson’s caution, not condemning it
This is a really dumb article. Your facts are irrelevant and the lack of knowledge surrounding the subject really shows. Total number of cases is absolutely irrelevant at this point, we are looking at changes in cases by the day, what happened a month ago is not relevant in determining where/when we can travel. It’s undeniable that the UK has handled this extremely poorly and is one the worst countries in the world regarding almost all measurements of COVID levels, and certainly there are many parts of Spain which are doing significantly better than the UK. Whilst this article has a good basis, the journalism here is sloppy. The reason that it would make sense for the UK to allow travel within selected areas of Spain is because the number of NEW cases is lower than those in the UK. Certainly in some areas the number of new cases each day is very low and it would make sense for the UK government to allow Brits returning from those areas to not need to quarantine, though you would have to expect that anywhere that the government makes exceptions for should expect to see an influx in Brits visiting from the relatively high-risk UK and subsequently infection rates in these areas would then too rise. In the future I would hope to see more intelligent journalism from this platform.
I have already lost money on sites in France in May due to Covid and I am not prepared to lose it all over again,I had a real job getting money back to re-book the eurotunnel too blaming me for it.The government are absolutely useless They lack a lack of knowledge,where I am going to in the costa blanca they have less problems than we do,how can my husband be expected to quarantine and lose money and potentially a job ? The situation over there does not warrant the action taken,and do not forget Spain got on with it all a lot sooner than we did.Also they tend to do as they were told which a lot over here have not.Even when they made wearing facemasks in a shop compulsory I saw a lot who did not comply.Why should my insurance be invalidated because I stand up and disagree with their actions?
I suggest, it’s your good self who has a “lack of knowledge” if you think this action is not warranted Clearly you’ve no idea about the case rates per numbers tested, seem to have forgotten that they opened to way too soon (and do you think opening nightclubs is at all sensible) Love your naivety about Spain, about how obedient they are (you’ve clearly not seen the mask litter left by them in the seas). Next you’ll be telling us that it’s UK citizens who are responsible for the spread If you want to go on holiday, then fine. But please stop carping at the government because they don’t work in your interests on this matter
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