Coronavirus tracked: How do infection rates in Spain and UK compare?

Britain reimposed a quarantine order on travellers from Spain after a spike in cases, but some of the county’s key tourist hotspots have infection rates lower than parts of UK

Boris Johnson’s government reinstated a quarantine order for people arriving from Spain at the weekend, after the country reported its largest daily spike in coronavirus cases since emerging from lockdown.

The decision frustrated the Spanish government, with prime minister Pedro Sanchez describing the move as an “error” and pointing to lower infection rates than in “most” of Spain, when compared to the UK.

The UK’s extension of do-not-travel advice to the Balearic and Canary Islands, which have not seen a spike in cases, has also bemused British travel companies and holidaymakers.

The government’s decision was informed by assessments of the Spanish outbreak by the Joint Biosecurity Centre together and Public Health England.

The infection rate in Spain was nearly four times higher than in the UK over the past fortnight, according to the latest data from European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Spain reported 905 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, with most of them in the regions of Catalonia, Aragon and Madrid.

Aragon’s recent outbreak has been the most severe, with more than 189 infections in the last week per 100,000 population. The neighbouring regions of Navarre (95.1 new cases in the past seven days) and Catalonia (82.7) have also seen spikes which outstrip the UK’s worst affected areas.

The UK’s highest concentration of new cases in the last week was in Blackburn, where 79 people tested positive per population of 100,000.

There were 63 new infections for every 100,000 people Leicestershire, with the majority in the city of Leicester itself, which remains under tighter lockdown restrictions than the rest of the country.

Many areas of Spain are seeing fewer Covid-19 infections than those British hotspots. The western regions of Galicia (3.1 cases per 100,000) and Extremadura (4.5 cases) have lower rates than many areas of England.

The Balearic Islands, meanwhile, reported 5.4 new cases for every 100,000 people in the seven days up to Tuesday – a lower rate than popular British staycation choice Cumbria and many parts of London.

The Spanish government pointed to figures such as these as it lobbied unsuccessfully for the islands – for which tourism is economically vital – to be exempt from the mandatory 14-day self-isolation order.

But UK health chiefs acted after a number of reported cases of British tourists testing positive for the disease returning to the UK from Spain.