Spain is changing its definition of “fully vaccinated” for inbound U.S. travelers.
Starting February 1, all U.S. travelers to Spain will have to prove that they are double-vaccinated with the last dose taken at least 14 days from their date of departure, but that’s not all.
Additionally, Spain will require that if a traveler’s last dose is more than 270 days from their date of departure, they also provide proof of a COVID-19 booster shot taken at least 14 days before their date of departure.
Accepted COVID-19 vaccines will continue to include Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sinovac, and Sinopharm.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, for one, thinks the moment may have arrived. The leader of Spain’s government on Monday became the first leader of a major European country to call on the European Union to debate the possibility of treating COVID-19 as an endemic illness akin to the flu.
“The situation is not what we faced a year ago,” Sánchez said in a radio interview with Spain’s Cadena SER. “I think we have to evaluate the evolution of COVID to an endemic illness, from the pandemic we have faced up until now.”
Such a move, which would trade harsh lockdowns and daily infections counts for a system that would track COVID waves like it currently tracks the flu, runs in sharp contrast to the direction taken by COVID-zero proponents like China, which essentially isolated the 5 million residents of Anyang Tuesday from the rest of the country after discovering some 60 Omicron cases there. Read more
