Coronavirus and travel: Top Spain doctor warns tourists to behave

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Coronavirus and travel: Top Spain doctor warns tourists to behave

By Annabel Fenwick Elliott
Tourists sit in a bar at the resort of Magaluf.

Tourists sit in a bar at the resort of Magaluf.Credit: AP

One of Spain's leading doctors has addressed problems associated with holidaymakers this summer amid the country's rising Covid-19 infection rates.

Dr. Vicente Soriano, a professor of infectious diseases and director of the UNIR Medical Center in Madrid, says that while spikes were "inevitable and expected" following the easing of lockdown and the reopening of tourism, Spain "is not living a second wave".

Speaking to MarketWatch as to whether Spain is safe for travellers following the FCO's decision to axe it from the UK's "safe list", Dr Soriano said: "If you stay in a resort and a hotel with a beach, really not much problem. But once you decide to take a couple of alcoholic drinks at night time, you don't wear the mask, and you sing and you dance in a gathering place, that's the problem."

In early June, Spain was registering fewer than 100 new cases of Covid-19 per day, but that figure shot back up to more than 1,500 on Thursday. However, these numbers represent "mostly young, asymptomatic" people, Dr Soriano pointed out.

It comes as Spain's tourism minister Reyes Maroto pleaded for tourists to "come back to Spain" in an interview with the Telegraph, and confirmed the country will not impose any reciprocal quarantine measures on travellers arriving from Britain.

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