COVID-19

MINISTER of Health Salvador Illa said today (Thursday) that the Spanishgovernment would not order a new nationwide lockdown despite rising Covid-19 infections. He said the regional governments already had a ‘sufficient range of measures’ to combat the pandemic – including closing their own borders or even sealing off individual areas to all but essential traffic. And he said Madrid did not consider giving regional governments the power to lock up […]

RAVERS travelled from Spain and the UK to join an illegal warehouse party planned to stretch five days into the New Year, French police said. More than 2,500 partygoers arrived in Lieuron, near Rennes, in Brittany, in defiance of Covid-19 restrictions which launched on New Year’s Eve and was to continue until Tuesday morning (January 5). The party was over early on Saturday morning after clashes between police and crowds […]

THE second vaccine to fight the Covid-19 pandemic has won approval in the UK and the first doses are scheduled to be given on Monday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the development of the vaccine was a ‘triumph’ – Britain had 100 million doses on order, enough to treat 50 million people. This will cover the whole of the UK population when combined with the existing Pfizer-BioNTech shot. Britain was […]

Yesterday saw the first immunizations administered to residents of senior homes, but Health Minister Salvador Illa called on the population ‘not to let its guard down’ After months of the pandemic in Spain, the first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the Pfizer and BioNTech laboratories have begun to be received by the sector of the population most at risk: seniors who live in homes and their carers. The […]

THE European Union has given the go-ahead to the start of covid-19 vaccinations after the Pfizer-BioNTech inoculation was approved. Spain is expected to have its immunisation programme underway by Sunday after the European Medicines Agency – followed by the European Commission – gave the vaccine the green light. Health Minister Salvador Illa said the specific programme of vaccination will depend on the arrival of the vaccine – and other ‘candidates’ […]

France reopened at midnight on Tuesday the borders with the UK for the movement of citizens, although it will require a negative coronavirus test, be it PCR or antigens sensitive to the new strain detected in the UK. This measure will be in force until at least 6th January allowing the use of the largest European border in the UK. Only French, French residents or citizens of third countries who […]

Spain has decided to suspend flights arriving from the United Kingdom from Tuesday 22nd Dec, apart from those carrying passengers who either have Spanish nationality or are resident here.The measure, which has also been adopted by Portugal, has been taken after a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus was identified in London and parts of the south of England, prompting stricter lockdown measures in parts of the country.As many […]

SPAIN is strengthening controls for people arriving from the UK over fears of a mutant strain of Covid-19 but has not outlawed travel. Several countries – including Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands – have banned travellers from Britain but the Spanish government wants a coordinated European Union response to the new threat – said to be 70% more contagious than existing coronavirus. However, the authorities in Madrid said Covid […]

COVID-19 vaccinations will begin across Spain as soon as medicine regulators give the green light – the all clear for the BioNTech-Pfizer expected this week. The European Commission expects the immunisation programme to begin from December 27 after the European Medicines Agency gives the go ahead – the jab has already started being given in the United Kingdom, the first 130,000 receiving the first dose in the first seven days. […]