UK FCDO Travel Warning: Spain Reintroduces Face Mask Rules

The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) has issued a travel warning for British nationals heading to Spain due to a surge in flu and COVID-19 cases, prompting the Spanish government to reintroduce face mask rules.

Spain has become the first European country to reinstate face mask requirements in certain settings like hospitals and health centres.

The updated health advice urges travellers to wear face masks in healthcare facilities such as doctors' surgeries, hospitals, or pharmacies, citing an increase in respiratory infections. Specific mask rules may vary by region, and individuals are advised to follow local authorities' guidance.

The decision, made only six months after the use of masks ceased to be obligatory in health facilities and pharmacies in the country, has proved controversial as most of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions oppose it.

But overruling them, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia told reporters: “What we have to do is protect the most vulnerable people. It's just common sense.”

World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the rising cases of the JN.1 variant and called for increased global surveillance. He emphasised the importance of preventing avoidable deaths, even though the current monthly death toll of 10,000 is lower than the pandemic's peak.

Recent data from the ONS and UK Health Security Agency winter infection survey suggests that COVID-19 cases in the UK may reach new record highs by mid-January, following the dominance of the JN.1 variant during the Christmas period.

On December 13, an estimated 2.54 million people in the UK had COVID-19, more than double the early December figures. Additionally, warnings indicate that over 100,000 Brits could develop Long-COVID in the coming weeks.

Do you have plans to travel to Spain in the coming days? Talk to us in the comment section below. Or if you need more advice on the above, contact us for further travel & immigration advice.

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