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Reader question: Can I travel to Spain if I’ve had both doses of the Covid vaccine?

Travel to Spain is currently heavily restricted, but does it make a difference if you have been vaccinated?

Published: 19 March 2021 14:01 CET
Updated: 20 March 2021 09:28 CET
vaccine certificate
Photo: JENS SCHLUETER / AFP

Travel to Spain has been restricted for a while now, with most travellers from outside the EU (including US citizens) barred since last year, while tighter restrictions were placed on travellers from the UK in December 2020.

UPDATE:

This all means that family members haven’t seen each other in a long time and that many who own a second home in Spain, haven’t been able to visit their properties for a long time, let alone those who want to travel here for holidays. 

So, does being fully vaccinated – having received both injection doses – give you a travel exemption and allow you to travel to Spain?

Unfortunately, no. Spanish nationals, foreign residents who can prove residency in Spain and travellers from the EU whose own countries don’t have travel restrictions that prevent them from leaving can come to Spain (following the lates rules in the link below) but Spanish authorities haven’t changed any of their rules yet with regards to other travellers, regardless of whether they’ve been vaccinated or not. 

Travellers from some countries with low infection rates will be able to make the journey, including those from Australia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, China (subject to reciprocity) and the regions of Hong Kong and Macao. CHECK HERE FOR EU UPDATE

UPDATE: What are the latest rules for travelling to Spain?

These Schengen-wide agreements are still being used by Spanish authorities as the criteria to allow travellers in, rather than whether individuals from any non-EU country have received both vaccine doses. 

That also means that travellers from South Africa and Brazil who have received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine can, for now, not visit Spain unless they are residents or nationals.

The ongoing restrictions on flights from South Africa and Brazil are in place until at least March 30th in order to contain the new strains of coronavirus in those countries.

The same restrictions apply to travellers from Colombia, Peru, Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

For travellers in other non-EU nations such as the United States, non-essential travel to Spain continues to be restricted until at least March 31st. 

READ ALSO: When will Americans be able to travel to Spain again?

However, it may be possible that being fully vaccinated will make a difference soon.

Spain, along with several other EU countries, has been discussing the idea of ‘Digital Green Certificates’, essentially a type of vaccine passport.

Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen announced the plan for a ‘digital green pass’ in a speech to German lawmakers at the beginning of March. 

“The digital green pass would provide proof that a person has received the vaccination as well as test results for anyone who has not yet been vaccinated. It would also include information on recovery for anyone who has previously contracted Covid-19”, she later tweeted. 

Later, on March 17th, the Commission adopted a legislative proposal establishing a common framework for the Digital Green Certificates, which they hope to roll out by mid-June. 

Spain’s tourism industry has been campaigning for vaccine passports for a while. Last month, Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto reiterated her government’s commitment to seeing internationally recognised Covid immunity passports or certification approved. 

“Spain will support any tool that facilitates the recovery of safe travel and mobility,” Maroto told journalists, adding that she hoped Spain will be seen as “a country that’s open to the world” and with safe “tourism protocols”.

Spain’s vaccine rollout is still in its relatively early stages, with only people in care homes, the over 80s, health and keyworkers, such as teachers and those in the emergency services having been vaccinated so far.

READ ALSO: Spain’s Covid-19 vaccine calendar: When will I get it? 

The vaccines are currently being administered to those in their 70s, as well as those with underlying health conditions.

Spain hopes to vaccinate the majority of its adult population by the end of summer.

Those living in the EU are currently allowed to enter Spain, however, travel is not being encouraged and those who do enter should have specific reasons for doing so – tourism not being one of them.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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