HOLIDAY-MAKERS returning to Scotland from Spain will have to quarantine for 14 days after the Scottish Government announced a reversal of the change to exemption rules made at the start of the week.

The move, which comes into force from midnight on Sunday, follows a spike in coronavirus infections in the Mediterranean country and fresh fears of a more widespread “second wave” of the disease hitting Europe.

The Scottish Government lifted a requirement for people travelling from the Spanish mainland and islands to self-isolate for two weeks on Monday prompting holiday-makers to head to those destinations for some sunshine.

Announcing the decision to reimpose restrictions, Scottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “The decision to exempt Spain earlier this week, was taken when the data showed there was an improvement in the spread of the virus. But clearly the latest data has given us cause for concern to overturn that decision.

“We appreciate that this will be disappointing. However, we have always been clear we are closely monitoring the pandemic situation in all countries and that we may require to remove a country from the list of places exempt from quarantine requirements should the virus show a resurgence.

“It is still active and it is still deadly. Suppressing the virus, preventing it from being transmitted and protecting public health is our priority.”

The decision to reinstate quarantine requirements for travellers from Spain has also been made by the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland and Wales as well as the UK Government.

After lifting the quarantine rules for Spain, Nicola Sturgeon warned people looking to book a trip away “cannot do it on the basis of certainty that because the country you might be travelling to is exempt from quarantine when you want to go there, that it will still be exempt when you come back”.

At the coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh she said there was no guarantee the rules and regulations of any country being visited by holiday-makers would stay the same for the duration of the trip.

France and Norway reinstated restrictions for Spain on Friday with leaders there advising their citizens not to travel to the Spanish mainland or islands.

Meanwhile, no new Covid-19-related deaths have been recorded in Scotland for the ninth day in a row, Scottish Government figures show. Statistics, released today, show 27 people tested positive for the virus in the 24-hour period, taking the number of cases to 18,547 since the start of the pandemic.

Two people with coronavirus were in intensive care on Friday night. The number of confirmed cases being treated in hospital was 270, down from 278 the previous day.