“totally unprepared” for the series of events that followed the positive test at a private clinic in Palma. On the day she was set to fly home, the 22-year-old was transported to a designated quarantine hotel on the Spanish island where she said she struggled to access basic food and water.
The student nurse claimed she was so thirsty and hungry during the first 24 hours at Hotel Palma Bellver that she broke down in tears and said “It’s shocking the way we are treated out here,” she said from her hotel room on the seventh day of enforced quarantine. All I wanted was staff to look after me. On my first night, I got there and I had no water. I was ringing and ringing asking and begging for them to give me water. At one point I was literally crying for water.”
The situation became so bad that she and other quarantining guests began to transfer food and drink from room to room via their balconies using bedsheets. According to Sophie, the food was served by hospital catering and not the hotel. She said it was initially cold, unappealing and even contaminated with something that looked like a cockroach.
She has no complaints about the requirement to quarantine: “I tested positive, I get that, that’s fine, that’s why we have the traffic light system,”
Spain is currently on the UK’s amber list, meaning double vaccinated travellers no longer have to quarantine once they return, but must take a private Covid test before the flight home. If this test is positive, they must isolate for 10 days before returning to the UK, and this will sometimes mean being placed in a quarantined hotel.
“I was really hungry, I ordered McDonald’s as a last resort and they didn’t give it to me. Then I tried ordering again from a different company, and they didn’t give that to me either.” she said,
