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Can a 26 year old Spanish citizen and resident currently travel to England from Spain by air, without quarantine, if they have previously recovered from a Covid-19 infection and have had a single dose of the Moderna vaccine?

Tested negative for virus. Vaccine certificate says "1/1" doses and Spain considers this to be fully vaccinated with no further doses required or allowed due to the previous infection. Other certificates of non-previously-infected show "2/2" doses for the same vaccine.

The UK.gov website has this to say:

Natural immunity

Some people may have natural immunity, for example if they’ve had COVID-19.

Some countries relax their entry rules if you have natural immunity. England does not.

Follow the rules for those who are not fully vaccinated if you have natural immunity and haven’t had a full course of an approved vaccine. For example, if you’ve only had 1 dose of Moderna instead of 2.

However Spain does consider this person to be fully vaccinated and the certificate states this. So it seems ambiguous. Does anyone definitively know better?

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  • I don't know the English entry rules in detail and can't answer your specific question, but differences in the definition of 'fully vaccinated' are common between European countries and you have to adhere to the definition of the visiting country, not the vaccinating country. If the UK authorities want you to have two Moderna doses to be considered fully vaccinated, then that is what you need to have even if the Spanish authorities claim that one dose is enough.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Commented Aug 21, 2021 at 16:58
  • All the references I’ve seen about Moderna state it is a two-shot vaccine. What does the official Spanish public health authority website have to say on the topic?
    – Traveller
    Commented Aug 21, 2021 at 17:23

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You can travel, as Spain is currently on the amber list, but you are treated as "not fully vaccinated" for the purposes of (eg) quarantine-on-arrival and post-arrival testing. The quote from HMG's website is not, it seems to me, in any way ambgiuous: being about people who have natural immunity though prior infection boosted by a single dose of Moderna, it refers to your exact circumstances (unless I misunderstand).

I accept that Spain considers you to have been fully vaccinated, but I note that none of HMG's regulations delegates to a foreign agency the right to determine whether someone's been fully vaccinated: the definition of full vaccination is set out in the regulations. It only allows certain foreign agencies to certify that a person has had the medications required to satisfy HMG's definition of full vaccination.

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