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Spain has ordered its hotels to shut by next Thursday, throwing British tourists into uncertainty with flights heavily reduced.
Hotels and other ‘short-stay accommodation’ are being shut down in Spain’s latest draconian step to halt the spread of the virus.
Spanish authorities have already begun converting hotels into makeshift hospitals as they battle an outbreak which has killed 1,002 people in the country – after 169 new deaths were announced today – and infected 18,077 patients.
The hotels will have to close by next Thursday, although the measure does not apply to long-term accommodation where guests can cater for themselves – as long as they can obey quarantine rules.
The UK Foreign Office had appeared to confirm such a move earlier this week, but an earlier warning that hotels would shut by Tuesday is no longer on the FCO website.
The FCO now advises that Britons who want to return to the UK should ‘make travel plans as soon as possible’, although flights have been cut back because of the outbreak.
According to the UK government, Spanish authorities ‘have underlined that no-one will be left without accommodation’, suggesting some tourists could be moved to other hotels.
Spain’s new measure orders ‘the suspension of opening to the public of all hotels and similar lodgings, tourist accommodation and other short-term accommodation… situated on national territory,’ the official notice reads.
The new rule will affect camping sites, caravan parks and other similar establishments, located anywhere in Spain.
‘The concentration of people in tourist accommodation, which must share certain common spaces, implies an increased risk of contagion, which is why, given the situation of restriction in the mobility of people, it is necessary, to guarantee the containment of the pandemic, to proceed to suspend the opening of these establishments to the public, ‘ said the health department.
Spain is the world’s second-most popular tourist destination, after France, and the tourist industry is key to its economy.
But Spain has imposed a national lockdown to halt the virus. More than 1,000 troops have been deployed in 14 cities across the country to help police the lockdown, telling people to go home unless they have a good reason to be outside.
Some hotels are already being turned into makeshift hospitals, including the 359-room Gran Hotel Colon in Madrid, and Spain hopes to acquire more hotel rooms for medical treatment. (Mail)
