Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca could be added to the ‘amber list’
Summer holiday blues for thousands of Brits: Sun-seekers complain their getaway plans are in tatters with Ibiza, Majorca and Menorca set to be stuck on No10’s ‘amber list’ as couples fear having to CANCEL trips to the Balearic islands
- Fears that the Balearic islands could be moved to the ‘amber list’ amid a sharp increase in coronavirus cases
- Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has warned holidaymakers that uncertainty is a ‘fact of life’ amid Covid
- Decision on reshaping the government’s traffic light allocations could be made as early as this afternoon
- Will you have to cancel your holiday if the Balearics go onto the amber list? Please email: tips@dailymail.com
Britons’ summer holiday plans were left in tatters today after it emerged the Balearic islands are set to be upgraded to the ‘amber list’ just a fortnight after they were approved for quarantine-free travel.
One couple told MailOnline they would have to cancel their trip to Ibiza to reunite with their grandchildren for the first time since the pandemic began due to the strict self-isolation rules for returning travellers.
Another family who are due to fly to Menorca on Friday revealed that they were now stuck in limbo with travel agents and airlines refusing to offer refunds.
Others who flew out from Gatwick Airport this morning told MailOnline they were already considering cutting their holidays short to bypass the 10-day home quarantine.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps showed no sympathy for the thousands of Britons who could be affected by the sudden change to the travel list, telling them that uncertainty was a ‘fact of life’.
A decision on whether to upgrades the Balearics – which also include Mallorca – to ‘amber’ amid rising infection numbers is possible as early as today.
Cases were already shooting upwards before the archipelago was even added to No10’s ‘green list’ on June 30. But they have continued to spiral following the influx of British holidaymakers.
Spanish newspapers have pointed the finger at young Spaniards travelling to the islands, and British experts say there is no proof yet that the decision to put Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca on the green list is to blame for the rise in cases.
Those travelling to amber listed countries, such as mainland Spain, have to self-isolate for 10 days on their return to England. However, as of July 19 the requirement to quarantine will be scrapped for the fully vaccinated and those aged under 18.
One woman, who had planned to fly to Ibiza this summer to see her sons with her husband, told MailOnline: ‘My partner and I will have to cancel our holidays if Ibiza is going on the amber list.
‘My sons are living there and I haven’t seen them for two years, now we planned our holidays there so we could spend time with him.
‘I haven’t seen my sons and my grandchildren for so long time that it will kill me straight away if they don’t allow us to travel and we are going into lockdown again. We have a new baby girl on the family and I’m afraid I won’t be allowed to meet her.’
Infections were already shooting upwards before the archipelago was added to No10’s ‘green list’ on June 30. But case numbers have continued to spiral following the influx on British holidaymakers. A graph shows how the infection rate — the number of cases spotted per every 100,000 people over the course of a week — in the Balearic islands has changed over time
Grant Shapps has issued a stark warning to holidaymakers amid signs tourist favourites including Ibiza are set to be upgraded to the ‘amber list’
The Spanish authorities have report a sharp increase in coronavirus cases in the Balearics over recent weeks
Heathrow is expecting a surge in travellers as restrictions are loosened on ‘Freedom Day’ next week
British tourists took to Twitter to voice their frustration at the chopping and changing of travel restrictions today
In other coronavirus developments today:
- A British couple were turned away from travelling to see their son in Malta after they were unknowingly given an Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine;
- Mask rules descended further into chaos as Grant Shapps backed Sadiq Khan keeping them compulsory on the Tube, buses and taxis in London — even though they are not required on trains from ‘Freedom Day’;
- Business leaders criticised the Government for ‘mixed messages’ over returning to the office ahead of the long-standing official ‘work from home’ order being scrapped in just five days’ time;
- Ministers were accused of using nightclubs as a proxy weapon to drive up youth coronavirus jab rates amid a furious row over Covid passports;
- Ed Sheeran has been forced to quarantine for a second time after the singer was notified that he had come into contact with a Covid case;
- A major Covid outbreak has struck a Royal Navy flotilla including 100 crew of the flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth after sailors allegedly went partying in Cyprus.
The couple said they chose not to get vaccinated after presuming they would have protection following a bad bout of Covid last year.
Originally, there was a suggestion that Britons who could show a positive antibody test – which shows previous infection and implies immunity – would be granted similar freedoms to those who are jabbed.
On her trip to Ibiza, she added: ‘Now it will not be possible due my partner not having enough available days to do quarantine because his company forced him to take half of his holidays before 30th of June.’
Amelia Ellis, 22, and Ben Randall, 23, are flying to green list Gibraltar from Gatwick today and heading on to join her family on the Costa del Sol.
Ms Ellis, who has only had her first Covid jab, told MailOnline: ‘I’d rather not have to isolate on the way back but if we have to then I’ll work from home like I have been anyway.
‘We might try to get home before the deadline if we have to.’
Mr Randall added: ‘We’re going for two-and-a-half weeks. I’ve been back in the office and it’s been good to see people, but I’ll go back to working from home again if I have to.’
The couple, from East Grinstead in Sussex, said they were prepared to take the risk of having to isolate when they get back for the chance to have a holiday.
Samuel Helps, 19, and girlfriend Hannah Simons, 19, from Bromley flew to Menorca from Gatwick this morning for a seven-day holiday.
They decided to take a chance and booked a last minute package deal. Both are double jabbed and are hopeful this will mean they are not caught out by any rule changes.
‘We should be safe while we are out there and we are protected if the rules change, we have all the insurance,’ care home worker Ms Bromley said.
‘Because it’s a package we are pretty well covered if anything does change.’
Mr Shapps told BBC Breakfast: ‘We review these every three weeks. I hope we have made very clear to everybody when booking trips at the moment there is always the chance that countries will move around.
‘Some countries may go to the red list, some countries may go to the green, but some may move the other way to the amber list. It is a fact of life that they will continue to move around as the virus continues to develop and change globally.’
The Transport Secretary today also said Brits who received doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine made in India should not be prevented from travelling, after a British couple given the jab were turned away from travelling to see their son in Malta.
Steve and Glenda Hardy, who received doses of the vaccine in March, were barred from flying by staff working for travel operator TUI at Manchester Airport on Friday. The retired couple, from Hull, were trying to visit their son, who they have not seen for over a year.
Mr Shapps told BBC Breakfast the Government will take up the issue with authorities in Malta, adding: ‘It is not right and it shouldn’t be happening.’
A decision on putting the Balearic islands back on the amber list could come this afternoon as the government carries out its three-weekly review of the traffic light system.
‘It’s all still up for discussion, but the figures aren’t great which is why it was on the watch list in the first place,’ a source told The Sun.
The Department for Transport said there was ‘nothing to say at the moment’ on changes to the Balearic islands’ travel status.
Spanish media report that health officials have advised students living on the mainland to cancel trips to the islands because ‘the risk of transmission in the same environment where the cases are occurring is high’.
More than 1,000 infections have been linked to young adults returning from Mallorca, El Pais claims.
The infection rate across the group of islands — how many cases are spotted in a week for every 100,000 residents — has risen fourteen-fold from a low of 20 in mid-June to around 280 on July 13.
Dr Simon Clarke, an infectious disease expert at the University of Reading, told MailOnline that it was too early to blame British holidaymakers for the spike.
He said: ‘Not very many people have been going to the Balearics until recently, and certainly there has been upset among people when people from places like Germany have been allowed to go to the Balearics while we haven’t.
‘Just because the UK and Balearics are going up in terms of case numbers it doesnt mean that they are linked, they might be it is possible, but there is no proof yet that they are linked.’
He added that it was possible the explosion in cases could have been fuelled by visitors from other countries.
Britons aged 12 or over must have either proof of a negative test 48 hours prior to arrival, or proof of being fully vaccinated at least 14 days beforehand.
Aside from countries potentially coming off the green list, some could be going the other way, according to an analyst.
Italy, Germany and Poland are among the destinations most likely to be added to the Government’s green travel list, Robert Boyle, former director of strategy at British Airways’ parent company IAG, has predicted.
He wrote on his website www.gridpoint.consulting that ‘strong candidates’ from Europe to be added to the quarantine-free list also included Austria, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Switzerland.
People arriving in the UK from green list destinations are not required to self-isolate.
There is a case for Hong Kong and Taiwan to be shifted onto the green list as well, he added, while Canada was also looking a decent bet, although the North American country does not currently allow visitors from the UK.
British tourists took to Twitter to voice their frustration, with Rosie Scott from Brentwood in Essex saying: ‘Changing holiday from Crete to Israel to Crete to green list Mallorca… Mallorca now set to go amber. This is utter bulls***.’
Cara Hooton from Bristol tweeted: ‘@BorisJohnson, pls don’t ruin my Ibiza holiday I really need this. Love cara x’
Another potential holidaymaker tweeted: ‘Holiday to Turkey cancelled so started looking at Mallorca and now it’s looking likely it’ll go on the amber list… No holiday this year then.’
And Brandon Hale said: ‘Flying to Ibiza tomorrow. All tests are back negative – looks like it will be going back to amber. Are people still going to go? Or cancel? We’re still going.’
The UK is battling its own summer spike in cases, with a further 36,660 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases reported as of 9am on Tuesday.
Government data also recorded a further 50 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus as of Tuesday – the highest day-on-day increase since April 9 – taking the country’s total to 128,481.
The Government’s travel lists are expected to be updated on Thursday, although reports have suggested it could come 24 hours earlier, with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps due to face the media on Wednesday morning.
Travel expert Mr Boyle also predicted Indonesia and Sierra Leone could be moved from the amber list to the red list, while Bahrain could go in the opposite direction because of ‘case rates plummeting’.
People arriving in the UK from a red-list location must spend 11 nights at a quarantine hotel, at a cost of £1,750 for solo travellers.
The Balearic islands, including Ibiza (pictured), look doomed to be moved to higher restrictions only a fortnight after being approved for quarantine-free travel, with a decision possible as early as today
The current traffic light system has very few recognised holiday destinations on the ‘green list’ for Britons to visit
Mr Shapps’ announcement means that for fully-vaccinated Britons the rules will be essentially the same for green and amber list countries
It comes as a couple were barred from making a trip to Malta due to having been given an Indian-made batch of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Boris Johnson has recently looked to play down concerns that up to five million Britons could be barred from taking holidays in the European Union because their vaccinations are not recognised by its passport scheme.
The problem centres on doses made by the Serum Institute of India being known as Covishield.
Despite it being the same as other AstraZeneca vaccines, it has not been authorised by Europe’s regulator and is therefore not recognised by the EU.
The Prime Minister has previously stated he was ‘very confident’ Covishield would not cause an issue, but Steve and Glenda Hardy, 64 and 63, told the newspaper they were turned back at Manchester airport at 3.30am on Friday when they tried to board a flight to Malta.
The Hull couple, who were given Indian manufactured doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March, said they had to holiday in Llandudno, Wales, instead.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps today said Britons who received doses of the jab made in India should not be prevented from travelling.
Mr Shapps told BBC Breakfast the Government will take up the issue with authorities in Malta, adding: ‘It is not right and it shouldn’t be happening.
‘The medicines agency, the MHRA, have been very clear it doesn’t matter whether the AstraZeneca you have is made here or the Serum Institute in India, it is absolutely the same product, it provides exactly the same levels of protection from the virus.
‘So we will certainly speak to our Maltese colleagues to point all this out. Obviously it is up to them what they do. But we will be making the scientific point in the strongest possible terms there is no difference, we don’t recognise any difference.’
It comes as First Minister Mark Drakeford prepares to set out on Wednesday whether coronavirus restrictions can be eased in Wales, which has the lowest Covid rates in the UK.
Mr Drakeford is due to confirm whether the delayed move to Alert Level One – which was pushed back by four weeks – can now take place, in a statement to the Welsh Parliament on Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, mask rules descended further into chaos today as Grant Shapps backed London Mayor Sadiq Khan keeping them compulsory on the Tube, buses and taxis – even though they are not required on trains from ‘Freedom Day’.
Mr Khan has broken ranks by announcing the move in the capital despite the government binning all legal restrictions across England from Monday.
However, the Transport Secretary played down the tensions this morning saying he had ‘expected’ operators to put in place ‘conditions of carriage’ to ensure that passengers were safe on public transport.
The increasingly confused situation means that passengers on trains in and out of London terminals will not need to wear masks during their journeys, but must while travelling around the city.
Unions have warned that the ‘botched’ approach to setting the rules will leave railway workers facing the threat of violence from angry customers.
Mr Khan told BBC Breakfast that around 400 enforcement officers would be deployed to check people are still wearing masks in the capital.
‘It’s not perfect. [It] would have been better if national rules applied across the country to avoid any confusion,’ he said.
‘The government for their own reasons have decided not to do that.’
Asked about the lack of restrictions on services from outside the city, Mr Khan said: ‘A number of services that come into London are not my responsibility. ‘If you are in London, you need to follow the rules.’
Mask chaos as Grant Shapps BACKS London Mayor Sadiq Khan keeping them compulsory on the Tube and buses even though they are NOT required on trains from ‘Freedom Day’ – amid fears staff face violence from ‘confused’ passengers
Mask rules descended further into chaos today as Grant Shapps backed London Mayor Sadiq Khan keeping them compulsory on the Tube, buses and taxis – even though they are not required on trains from ‘Freedom Day’.
Mr Khan has broken ranks by announcing the move in the capital despite the government binning all legal restrictions across England from Monday.
However, the Transport Secretary played down the tensions this morning saying he had ‘expected’ operators to put in place ‘conditions of carriage’ to ensure that passengers were safe on public transport.
The increasingly confused situation means that passengers on trains in and out of London terminals will not need to wear masks during their journeys, but must while travelling around the city.
Unions have warned that the ‘botched’ approach to setting the rules will leave railway workers facing the threat of violence from angry customers.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced that masks will stay compulsory on the Tube, buses and taxis in the capital – even though they are not required on trains elsewhere from ‘Freedom Day’
Mr Khan told BBC Breakfast that around 400 enforcement officers would be deployed to check people are still wearing masks in the capital.
‘It’s not perfect. [It] would have been better if national rules applied across the country to avoid any confusion,’ he said.
‘The government for their own reasons have decided not to do that.’
Asked about the lack of restrictions on services from outside the city, Mr Khan said: ‘A number of services that come into London are not my responsibility. ‘If you are in London, you need to follow the rules.’
In his own round of interviews this morning, Mr Shapps said: ‘Whilst we are going from this being a legal requirement to guidelines, we do expect individual carriers to make sure they are putting in place whatever is appropriate for their network,’ he told Sky News.
‘The airlines have already said that you will need to carry on wearing masks on those. It is very much in line with what we expected – indeed wanted – to happen.’
He added on Times Radio: ‘If you think about it, it makes sense..
‘We’ve moved from the point in the crisis where everything is set in law to a point where we put in place a degree of a personal responsibility and also ask the carriers in this case – the transport carriers – to make clear the conditions of travel on their particular network.’
Masks will also remain compulsory in Scotland and Wales, but transport operators in the rest of the country have indicated they will not insist on passengers wearing them.
The coronavirus restrictions which will be removed from July 19
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said staff risked becoming ‘punchbags’ for irate travellers.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘We now have the ludicrous position where a passenger travelling through London will have different rules on the tube and the main line services.
‘There will also be a change of policy on trains at the Welsh and Scottish borders which is a total nonsense, and will leave staff right at the sharp end and dangerously exposed when it comes to enforcement.
‘As a result of this chaotic approach we now have a situation where the London measures are not enforceable by law, which means RMT members will be thrown into a hostile and confrontational situation from next Monday at heightened risk of abuse and assault.’
Mr Khan’s move came as ministers clashed with government scientists over the decision to ditch mask laws next week.
Meanwhile, Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg added to the mixed messages by saying he would not wear one in Parliament when the requirement is lifted.
Mr Rees-Mogg said that people who have received both jabs of the vaccine have already done their ‘societal bit.’
‘This morning I wandered around the palace of Westminster wearing a mask, and met almost nobody. In those circumstances I will not be wearing a mask – what would be the point?,’ he said while speaking on the Conservative Home Podcast.
‘If you’ve had both vaccines, your risk of transmitting the disease is slight. So in a way you’ve done your societal bit by having the vaccine, as much as by wearing a mask, which is why I think it’s sensibly individual choice.’
His comments come amid mass confusion among businesses about whether or not to enforce their own voluntary mask-wearing policies when restrictions are lifted on July 19.
Bosses last night demanded clarity on whether such policies would be legal.
Some chains have already suggested they may bring in mask-wearing requirements for customers beyond July 19 – with some fearing a ‘Freedom Day free-for-all’ when the Government lifts Covid restrictions on Monday.