Spain No Longer Requires Travellers to Complete the Health Control Form
The Spanish authorities have announced that travellers from third countries who have been subject to stricter rules will no longer be required to complete or show the health control form upon their arrival.
The news was announced by the Ministry of Health of Spain, and the decision officially entered into force on September 20, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“As of Tuesday, September 20, 2022, the Spain Travel Health (SpTH) portal, both the website and the mobile applications (APPs), will no longer be operational. It will no longer be necessary to complete the health control form to travel to Spain nor to show the SpTH QR code at the airport of arrival,” the statement of the Ministry of Health reads.
Previously, the health control form, which indicated whether a traveller had been vaccinated, recovered, or tested negative for COVID and included other additional information, had to be filled in online before reaching Spain by all travellers who did not hold an EU Digital COVID Certificate as well as by those who did not hold a certificate approved by the EU.
Once the travellers arrived in Spain, they had to show the document to the airport or seaport authorities to be permitted entry into the country.
However, since the Spanish authorities concluded that such a measure was no longer necessary to control the spread of COVID-19, the requirement was dropped. Thus, this means that all travellers, regardless of their country of origin, no longer need to fill in the form.
Despite Spain dropping the requirement to fill in the health control form, the authorities just recently extended the requirement to present one of the COVID passes until November 15. The Spanish Ministry said earlier this week that travellers from non-EU countries would continue to be required to present a vaccination, recovery, or test certificate.
In addition, while in Spain, travellers are also subject to the requirement to wear a face mask on planes and trains. On the other hand, there is no such requirement when attending different public places.
Data from the World Health Organization show that Spain has recorded a total of 19,080 new Coronavirus infection cases and 566 deaths in the last seven days.
As for the vaccination rate, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control shows that Spain has administered 102,924,722 COVID vaccine doses as of September 8. Additionally, the same shows that 86 per cent of the entire adult population have completed primary vaccination so far, and another 66.1 per cent have received the first booster shot.
