Balearics moving to amber ’embarrassing’ for UK Government as infections get ‘much worse’

Boris Johnson says double jabs will be ‘liberator’ for travel

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The Balearics, which are part of the “green watchlist”, could become amber soon as a mass COVID-19 outbreak has been detected after thousands of students visited the islands on school trips.

The Balearic Islands, which include Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, were added to the UK’s travel “green watchlist”

That means they can become amber without notice if there is a spike of COVID-19 cases in the region.

At the moment, British holidaymakers can enjoy restriction-free travel to the islands with no need to quarantine on their return.

However, according to the traffic light system, the Balearics are “most at risk” of being downgraded to amber at short notice.

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A mass COVID-19 outbreak has recently been reported due to hundreds of school trips that took place last week.

The islands have seen their average case rate double in 10 days to 300 per 100,000.

The small island of Formentera has the highest at 109 – the UK average case rate is 184.

If the country slips down to amber, returning passengers will be suddenly subject to 10 days quarantine and two PCR tests.

Analyst Tim White predicted that if the Balearics don’t move to amber immediately, they will do in the next review, expected on 15 July.

“The local government for the Balearic Islands reports 203 new infections, and more importantly/worryingly, a positive test rate of 7.9 percent,” he tweeted.

“It’s getting so much worse according to local data.”

He explained that although “nothing is certain” he strongly believes the Spanish islands will be amber by the end of the month.

“I do think it will be amber by then.

“The only thing which may save Balearics is cases are rising so much everywhere, there’s a very small chance all EU may be allowed to be green.

“But I think that’s more likely in a future review, not the next one.”

He continued: “No guarantees, but I think it’s gonna be very embarrassing for the Government to move it to amber before then.

“If they wait till 15/7 they can ‘hide’ it with other changes,” he said.

This comes after thousands of Britons arrived in Spain last week, on the official day the holiday spot was added to the UK’s “safe list”.

Portugal, which was added to the green list in May, saw thousands of tourists rushing to get home after it was moved to the amber list with very short notice.

For now, the Baleric Government has implemented new restrictions that affect Britons visiting the islands. 

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