From today, Friday 15 May, Spain has brought into law mandatory 14-day quarantine for all arrivals from outside Spain, including returning nationals and permanent residents.

GENERAL

• All international travellers will be subject to hygienic sanitary checks upon arrival
• Health authorities may contact quarantined persons to track their movements
• When symptoms such as fever appear, cough, shortness of breath, fever, or other symptoms, quarantined arrivals must telephone the health service on 061, indicating they are in quarantine for coming from abroad
• Cross-border workers are exempt from these measures
• Travel agencies are obliged to inform in-bound passengers of these measures at the beginning of the ticket sales process
• Airlines must supply passengers with a public health form, stating your intended location during quarantine, which must be submitted upon arrival

CREW

• ALL persons arriving from outside Spain have to serve a two-week quarantine. This may be served on board, as long as this is confirmed by the captain or management of the vessel. Arrivals, by air or sea, must provide proof of address (or vessel) where they will quarantine.

• Upon arrival of a yacht from outside of Spain, time spent sailing/cruising non-stop before arrival in Mallorca counts towards time to be spent in quarantine.

• Port police tell us they will assess each case in isolation, making it impossible to have any certainty about how crew will be treated when wishing to embark or disembark a yacht. The decision to quarantine lies with the port police.

During the quarantine period, those in quarantine must remain in their home or accommodation, limiting their travel to:

• Shopping for food, pharmaceuticals and basic necessities
• Visiting health centres, services and establishments

A mask must be worn at all times when travelling outside of quarantine.

TESTING

The issue of coronavirus testing is a grey area. There is no provision currently for shortening the quarantine requirement by providing a negative PCR or positive immunological (antibody) test. Estela Shipping is working with its legal representatives on a proposal to the authorities to formally recognise the validity of a clinical PCR test.

IMPORTANT

While quarantined crew are understandably not permitted to leave their place of quarantine except for emergencies and shopping for essentials, police inform us that this applies to all yacht crew, irrespective of how long they have been in Mallorca.

By law, CREW MAY NOT COME ASHORE for any reason other than to shop for essentials. The introduction last week (May 4th) of daily exercise slots for the general population DOES NOT apply to yacht crew. In other words, no provision is made for crew to exercise on shore in any way, at any time.

Police accept that this is unworkable in practice and that enforcement would be up to individual officers, but it is important to note that this restriction exists.