Faced with the increase in the number of arrivals from France and the rebound in the rate of contamination on Spanish soil, Spain will require travelers arriving from France by road to test negative for Covid-19 from less than seventy-two hours, the health ministry announced on Saturday March 27.
The measure, which takes effect on Tuesday and will apply to people over the age of 6, comes as Spain steps up restrictions in hopes of avoiding an increase in cases of contamination during Holy Week, which begins this weekend.
Rare exceptions
This is the first time that such a requirement has been imposed by Spain on those who cross this land border. Until now, this had only been required for arrivals by air (airports) or sea (ports). As of March 30, this obligation is extended to travelers entering by road from France. Children under the age of 6 and travelers in transit are not affected by this measure, which applies to travelers, regardless of their nationality and the reason for their entry into Spain, coming from a country classified as “to risk ”, that is to say with an incidence rate equal to or greater than 150 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Only people working in road transport and cross-border workers will be exempt, as well as people living in the border area provided they stay within a radius of 30 kilometers around their home.
Madrid, refuge for European tourists
Until mid-March, the number of infections was steadily declining in Spain but it has started to grow again, with the government reporting 7,586 new cases in twenty-four hours on Friday, bringing the total number of cases to nearly from 3.3 million and deaths to over 75,000. In France, daily cases have almost doubled since the beginning of the month. The threshold of 200,000 new weekly cases has been crossed and more than 94,000 people with Covid-19 have died since the start of the epidemic.
Favorite destination in the middle of Covid with its bars open and its curfew at 11 p.m., Madrid has become a refuge for European tourists, especially French, while its inhabitants are prohibited from leaving the region.
This difference in treatment exasperates the Spaniards, even more with the approach of Holy Week, an extremely popular holiday in the country and when people are used to traveling to meet up with their families.
Germany on Friday classified the whole of France, including the overseas territories, as an area to be “High risk” infection with Covid-19, which implies in particular at least random border controls, which most travelers from France observe a period of quarantine on arrival in the country and have one less negative test forty-eight hours.