Passengers entering Spain will be required to have a negative COVID-19 test result or prove they have been fully vaccinated.

The move follows Italy's announcement earlier this week that all passengers arriving from China need to be tested for COVID-19.

As COVID-19 cases in China surge, authorities around the world are either imposing or considering restrictions on Chinese travelers.



Vote for a EU-common policy
Spain would coordinate at a high level with other EU member states to adopt a common policy, while pushing for a revision of the current conditions that need to be met by travellers seeking to obtain the EU’s so-called Digital COVID Certificate.

The new measure comes after the European Union’s Health Security Committee met on Thursday to discuss the bloc’s strategy for mitigating the spread of the virus amid an influx of visitors from China after the Asian country lifted most of its travel restrictions.



'Unjustified' current
Italy, which had already mandated tests on arrival for all travellers by air from China, called for such measures to be extended across the EU, warning they risked being ineffective if applied in a piecemeal fashion by only some countries within the bloc.

But the committee, which is composed of officials from health ministries across the bloc and chaired by the European Commission, said it believed an EU-wide introduction of mandatory COVID-19 screenings for travellers from China was currently “unjustified”.

China Covid Europe Italy Outbreak Spain