Spain becomes second European country to announce COVID restrictions for travellers from China

Spain has become the second European nation to announce new COVID restrictions for travellers from China following a surge in cases in the East Asian country.

To enter Spain, passengers will need to have a negative test result or be fully vaccinated.

It comes after Italy earlier this week said it had ordered COVID antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travellers coming from China.

In the UK, ministers have said the government is keeping the situation “under review”. Health minister Will Quince said the “key threat” was the potential for the emergence of new variants.

But Professor Andrew Pollard, the chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said the imposition of travel restrictions was unlikely to prove effective in stopping variants reaching the country.

“Trying to ban a virus by adjusting what we do with travel has already been shown not to work very well. We have seen that with the bans on travel from various countries during the pandemic,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Coronavirus infections have risen sharply across China in December after Beijing scrapped its zero-COVID policies, including regular PCR testing on its population.