Tourism minister stresses that Spain is a "safe destination"

At a Thursday press conference, Maroto stated that Spain "is considered to be one of the safest countries" and that this stems from the "responsibility" displayed by the great majority of the public who have been vaccinated.

She highlighted the fact that the country is now in the middle of the booster vaccine phase and is also giving children the vaccine. "We have achieved this, despite the many criticisms and doubts from those who reckoned that it (the vaccination programme) would take years."

Maroto called for people to be cautious when interacting, adding that there is safe travel in Spain, which is allowing a balance to be maintained between containment of the virus and recovery from economic crisis.

On Omicron, she pointed to experience in countries such as South Africa and Germany, where "it is being seen that cases begin to decline in a rapid way".