I believe strongly the Canary Islands will make the green list for travel during the main summer season, perhaps sooner. We made a positive case in our recent blog post: click here.
Firstly, the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed the government will take an islands-based approach in considering which countries should be listed green, amber and red. This means that the Canary Islands could be green, whilst the Spanish mainland is rated amber. In fact, even currently, the Foreign Office advice against non-essential travel to Spain has a carve-out for the Canary Islands.
When will we know the first 'green' countries?
The government says it will release the list in 'early May', a touted date is around 7th May. However, it is likely to be reviewed regularly. If the Canary Islands do not make the first list, the Islands are likely to make it soon after and in time for the main season.
What does the government take into account about a country or island when considering the rating?
1) Vaccination rates
2) Infection rates
3) Prevalence of variants of concern
4) Reliability of data and access to genomic sequencing
How is Lanzarote doing (at the time of writing)?
1) Vaccination rates in terms of population
Canary Islands: 25.77% (one dose) and 6.53% (two doses)
Spain: 31.28% (one dose) and 8.39% (two doses)
2) Infection rates per 100,000 over the last 7 days
Lanzarote: 44.7
Canary Islands: 53.2
Spain: 114.55
3) Prevalence of variants of concern
Spain has never been red-listed or publicly sighted as a concern by the UK government.
4) Reliability of data and access to genomic sequencing
The data and genomic research is considered reliable from all major European countries. Turkey proved to be the only country removed from the travel corridors list due to data reliability last summer.
When will Lanzarote be on the green list?
The vaccine rollout in speeding up Spain-wide and there's every reason to hope by July, the island will be considered 'green'. It could well by sooner, if the government has the apetitie to release a major holiday destination.
Now is a good time to start preparing where to stay this summer. Private villas and apartments are likely to be popular. Many owners and agents have great policies on coronavirus, through either refunds or the ability to change dates. Booking can be risk-free.
There's an amazing range of properties available on our website: click here