UK tourist holiday rules announced for Spain, Portugal and Malta

29 June 2021, 10:48 | Updated: 29 June 2021, 11:08

Tourist hotspots are toughening up entry requirements for those travelling from the UK.

Just as England added more countries to the ‘green list’, now some holiday hotspots have imposed new Covid restrictions on British tourists.

With concerns over the Delta variant, Spain, Portugal and Malta are among the European destinations which have toughened the entry requirements for those travelling from the UK.

Spain has said holidaymakers will need to prove they are fully vaccinated, or provide a negative PCR test on arrival if aged 12 or over.

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While the Balearic Islands are currently on the green list, mainland Spain has not yet been added.

For anyone wanting to travel to Italy, they must self-isolate for five days and provide a negative Covid test.

Getting tougher with their own rules, Portugal has imposed a 14-day quarantine on UK arrivals who have not had both their vaccines, including children aged 12 and over.

Portugal was moved from green to England’s ‘amber list’ earlier this month, meaning travellers would also need to quarantine for ten days on their return to the UK.

Just hours after being added to the UK green list, Malta imposed a 14-day quarantine on unvaccinated Brits.

This comes after German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to ban British travellers from entering the European Union altogether, with or without the vaccine.

She has tried to designate the UK a ‘country of concern’ as the Delta variant continues to spread.

Meanwhile, new health secretary Sajid Javid has assured Brits that normal life will resume on July 19, declaring: "It's going to be irreversible. There's no going back".

Boris Johnson urges young people over the age of 18 to get vaccinated

The former chancellor said that "people and business need certainty", before adding: "restrictions on our freedom, they must come to the end".

He said while the Delta variant makes up around 95% of new cases, “the number of deaths remains mercifully low".

Mr Javid went on to say that the vaccine roll out has now saved 27,000 lives and prevented more than seven million people from getting coronavirus.