Europe’s Patchwork Reopening

Bubbles and bespoke lists

While Italy, Germany and France are planning to open up widely, other European nations are proceeding more cautiously, drawing up selective lists of countries from which travel will be allowed, or establishing “travel bubbles” along the lines of the one being considered by Australia and New Zealand.

Spain, one of the hardest-hit countries in Europe, is waiting until July to lift most of its travel restrictions. At that point, the country plans to open up to visitors arriving from a list of nations where the epidemic is under control, according to Manuel Muñiz, the Spanish government’s State Secretary for Global Spain. That list hasn’t been finalized, Mr. Muñiz said in an interview, but it will probably include most European nations, and could be expanded to a select group of countries from outside the region. (The country’s land borders with neighboring France and Portugal are due to reopen on June 22.) He added that Spain has asked the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for specific guidance on how the country should draw up its list.

“When you talk to epidemiologists, what they tell you is that if you have these two containers with equivalent amount of Covid risk, it’s almost irrelevant if there are transfers of movement of people from one place to the other,” said Mr. Muñiz. He added that tourist destinations need to be able to do four things in order to welcome visitors safely: Track the virus’s spread; test anyone with symptoms; trace the contacts of those who test positive; and treat those who fall ill.

“When countries open needs to be fundamentally linked to how the disease is performing there, and whether those capabilities are in place,” Mr. Muñiz said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/travel/europe-reopening-tourism-covid.html