After a 2020 summer season nearly nonexistent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, travel to Spain looked more realistic in 2021 on account of a new tourism corridor. Now, however, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said that he doesn’t expect the country to be sufficiently vaccinated until the end of summer 2021.
Sánchez shared the prediction during a speech at the Executive Council of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in Madrid. “Only mass vaccination will open the way to the normality we want,” he said.
A vaccination rate of 70% is the benchmark health professionals intend to meet before opening Spain up for tourism. When the country meets that goal, Sánchez said, lawmakers will progressively lift restrictions on the industry. In doing so, he hopes to make the country “the beacon of the resurrection of tourism in all the world.”
2020 saw Spain stay vigilant in exploring nightlife and entertainment solutions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent experiment tested the transmission of the virus during an event at Barcelona club Sala Apolo in which rapid testing was implemented. Although no confirmed cases were tied to the gathering, rapid testing is still not considered a viable solution due to the potential for false negatives.
At the time of writing, Spain reports over 2.7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases resulting in nearly 58,000 deaths according to the World Health Organization.
