In time for summer, Europe sees dramatic fall in virus cases

“Luckily I’ve had two vaccines,” said Casper Glyn, a 51-year-old lawyer from London who came to Porto to cheer on Chelsea with his two young sons. “They are young and healthy, so I feel good.”

On Monday, Spain lifted entry requirements — including the need for a negative virus test — for visitors from 10 countries, including the U.K. British travelers are highly sought after at Spanish beach resorts because they tend to spend the most.

Spain lifted the measures after its two-week contagion rate dropped below 130 new infections per 100,000 people, down from a record of 900 at the end of January.

Fernando Simón, head of Spain’s health emergency coordination center, said he would prefer authorities “shouted that Spain is open to tourism in 20 days, not now, when we still need to be cautious.”

“I think we should lower the tone of euphoria a little,” he said.

Greece, too, was voicing caution even after it recently allowed domestic travel and reopened most economic activity. About a third of the Greek population has received at least one vaccine dose, but new infections and deaths remain high.

“Yes, hospitalizations are dropping, yes, deaths and intubations are down, (but) there are still people entering hospital who could have been vaccinated and weren’t,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, encouraging Greeks to get their shots.