BERLIN: One by one, several European Union nations banned flights from the UK on Sunday and others were considering such action, all in hopes of blocking a new strain of coronavirus sweeping across southern England from establishing a strong foothold on the continent.
Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Italy all announced restrictions on UK travel.
A government spokesman in Germany said the country is working on a regulation to restrict travel between Germany and Britain to protect the country from the new coronavirus variant. The government said it was in contact with its European partners about the travel restrictions too. It wasnt immediately clear when or for how long the restrictions would be.
Germany said it will also restrict travel to and from South Africa.
The Netherlands banned flights from the U.K. For at least the rest of the year while Belgium issued a flight ban for 24 hours starting at midnight and also halted train links to Britain, including the Eurostar. Austria and Italy said they would halt flights from the U.K. But did not say exactly when that would take place.
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Twitter that the government was preparing the ban “to protect Italians” from the new coronavirus variant. About two dozen flights were scheduled to arrive in Italy on Sunday, most in the northern region of Lombardy but also to Venice and Rome.
The Czech Republic imposed stricter quarantine measures from people arriving from Britain. An EU official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were still ongoing, said Sunday afternoon that the European Commission was in touch with member states on the rapidly developing situation.
Just days before Christmas, high-speed train operator Eurostar canceled its trains between London, Brussels and Amsterdam beginning Monday, but kept trains operating on the London-to-Paris route.
The EU governments said they were taking action in response to tougher measures imposed Saturday by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on London and its surrounding areas. Johnson immediately put those regions into a new Tier 4 restriction level, upending Christmas plans for millions.
Johnson said a fast-moving new variant of the virus that is 70% more transmissible than existing strains appeared to be driving the rapid spread of new infections in London and southern England. But he added “theres no evidence to suggest it is more lethal or causes more severe illness,” or that vaccines will be less effective against it.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Sunday said he was issuing the flight ban for 24 hours starting at midnight “out of precaution.” “There are a great many questions about this new mutation,” he said, adding he hoped to have more clarity by Tuesday.
The World Health Organization tweeted late Saturday that it was “in close contact with U.K. Officials on the new #COVID19 virus variant” and promised to update governments and the public as more is learned.
The new strain was identified in southeastern England in September and has been circulating in the area ever since, a WHO official told the BBC on Sunday.
“What we understand is that it does have increased transmissibility, in terms of its ability to spread,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHOs technical lead on COVID-19.
Studies are under way to better understand how fast it spreads and and whether “its related to the variant itself, or a combination of factors with behavior,” she added.
She said the strain had also been identified in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia, where there was one case that didnt spread further.
“The longer this virus spreads, the more opportunities it has to change,” she said. “So we really need to do everything we can right now to prevent spread, and minimizing that spread will reduce the chances of it changing.”
Susan Hopkins of Public Health England said while the variant has been circulating since September, it wasnt until the last week that officials felt they had enough evidence to declare that it has higher transmissibility than other circulating coronaviruses.
Germany has not yet spelled out a ban but is considering limiting or halting flights from the U.K. As well, the dpa news agency reported Sunday.
Europe has been walloped this fall by soaring new infections and deaths due to a resurgence of the virus, and many nations have reimposed a series of restrictions to reign in their outbreaks.
Britain has seen over 67,000 deaths in the pandemic, the second-highest confirmed toll in Europe after Italy. Europe as a whole has recorded nearly 499,000 virus deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that experts believe is an undercount, due to limited testing and missed cases.
The European Medicines Agency, meanwhile, is meeting Monday to approve the first COVID-19 vaccine for the European Unions 27 nations, bringing vaccinations closer for millions of EU citizens. The vaccine made by German pharmaceutical company BioNTech and American drugmaker Pfizer is already in use in the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries. The EMA moved up its assessment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by a week after heavy pressure from EU governments, especially Germany, which has said that after the EMA approval it could start vaccinating citizens as early as next Sunday. (AGENCY)
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