News for expats on COVID-19 - update 16.06.2020

Last Sunday, 14th of June, the Prime Minister announced at his weekly press conference, that he had spoken with all presidents of the Autonomous Regions and it has been decided that instead of opening the borders on the 1st of July, they will be opened at midnight on the 21th of June. This means that from Monday, the 22nd of June, when Spain will also enter the new normality with all its imposed measures, the arrival of international tourism from the EU countries is also allowed again.
Tourism from the rest of the world will have to wait until the 1st of July, though it is not clear yet when tourists will be allowed to enter from Britain as the british airlines operating to the airport of Alicante/Elche have announced that they will postpone their activities until mid-July due to lack of passengers due to the quarantine to be kept according to the health decree of their country.

Persons entering Spain, via airports or ports will be temperature recorded and may also need to fill in a document with personal data, so that in case of need contact can be made.
All tourists  who come to Spain, have to keep in mind that they must comply with all existing measures, such as wearing a moutmask on public streets if the distance  from 1,5 meters cannot be guaranteed, the use of handgel and other hygiene measures, the social distance in bars, restaurants, shops etc. and the imposed measures for swimmingpools and common areas of the community of owners.

From Sunday, 21st of June, the inhabitants of Spain, will be able to circulate throughout the whole country, as the state of emergency will have ended. It is still not quite sure whether Madrid will also enter the new normality or if they would rather wait a few days more. It will be announced in the coming days, as the Region of Madrid will decide if and how they will do it.
It is expected that there will be a lot of national tourism in Spain this year and that camping and/or rural tourism will increase significantly. What is clear that this year the beach tourism will be very different and that each townhall will impose its own standards and rules, in which in particular, the 1,5 meters social distance will be emphasized.

The European Commission is working on a special website where all Europeans can search  for information about a specific country. This information will be published in 24 languages and will be regulary updated;  this site can be found at www.reopen.europa.eu.

In summary, on the 21st of June (midnight), Spain´s borders will open to all residents of the EU countries after the country being in a state of emergency for 100 days and have reached the end of the de-escalation plan. Therefore, Spain starts with the new normality or post-corona period, in which it is very important to realize that one will have to continue with all imposed measures, to continue fighting the virus,  as it is still among us.