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Spain’s government has announced that it will only accept negative results of Coronavirus antigen tests if they have been taken within 24 hours before travellers’ arrival in Spain, instead of 48 hours as they have been accepted up to this point.
The recent changes confirmed by Spain’s government will take effect starting from today, February 1, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“As of today, February 1, and in line with Council Recommendation of January 25, 2022, on a coordinated approach to facilitate free movement during the COVID-19 pandemic, which replaces Recommendation (EU) 2020/1475, only negative results of antigen tests for SARS-CoV-2 infection obtained within 24 hours before arrival in Spain will be considered valid, and not 48 hours, as was the case until now,” the statement published by Spain’s government reads.
At the same time, authorities in Spain have confirmed that the current rule according to which the PCR test results should not be older than 72 hours will continue to remain effective.
“On the other hand, and as has been the case to date, certificates of diagnostic tests for an active COVID-19 infection with a negative result from molecular nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT), whose sample has been obtained within 72 hours before arrival in Spain, will continue to be considered as valid,” the statement clarifies.
However, both antigen and PCR test certificates must include at least the name and surname of the holder, the date and the sample taken, as well as the type of test performed in the traveller’s country of origin.
Based on the figures provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), Spain has registered 9,660,209 cases of COVID-19 infection and 92,767 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Besides, WHO figures also reveal that in the last seven days, a total of 321 people have tested positive for the Coronavirus in Spain, while 364 people have died.
Authorities in Spain have also identified cases of infection with the Coronavirus Omicron variant, which has become a dominant variant in many European countries, therefore attempting to impose additional requirements in order to stop another surge in the number of infections.
In a bid to maintain the epidemiological situation under control, authorities in Spain continue to classify other countries into specific categories, taking into account the infection rate in them.
Recently, authorities in Spain announced that except for Switzerland, all European Union and Schengen Zone countries will continue to belong to the risk list until February 6.