BERLIN (AP) – On Sunday, several European Union countries banned flights from the UK and Germany, were considering limiting those flights to make sure a new coronavirus strain crossing the south of England does not establish a strong point of support on the continent.
The Netherlands banned flights from the UK for at least the rest of the year, while Belgium issued a 24-hour flight ban from midnight and also stopped rail connections to Britain, including the Eurostar. . Austria and Italy said they would stop flights from the UK, but gave no details on when the ban was lifted.
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Twitter that the government was preparing the measure “to protect Italians” from the new variant of the coronavirus. About two dozen flights were expected to arrive in Italy on Sunday, most in the northern region of Lombardy, but also in Veneto and Lazio, which include Venice and Rome respectively.
Meanwhile, German officials were studying “serious options” regarding incoming flights from the UK, but have not yet taken action.
Meanwhile, the Czech Republic imposed stricter quarantine measures on people arriving from the United Kingdom
EU governments say they are acting in response to tougher measures imposed on and around London by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday. He immediately put these regions on a new level of level 4 restrictions, saying that a new variant of the virus that moves quickly and is 70% more transmissible than existing strains seems to be driving the rapid spread of new infections in London and in the south of England.
“There is no evidence to suggest that she is more lethal or causes more serious illness,” Johnson said, or that vaccines will be less effective against her.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Sunday that he had issued a 24-hour flight ban from midnight “as a precaution”.
“There are a lot of questions about this new mutation and whether it is still on the mainland,” he said. I hoped to have more clarity on Tuesday.
The World Health Organization tweeted on Saturday afternoon that “we are in close contact with UK officials about the new variant of the # COVID19 virus.” He pledged to update governments and the public as more information on this variant is learned.
The new strain of coronavirus was identified in the south-east of England in September and has been circulating in the area since then, a WHO official told the BBC on Sunday.
“What we understand is that it has increased transmissibility, in terms of its dissemination capacity,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Technical Officer on COVID-19.
Studies are being done to better understand how quickly it spreads and whether it “is related to the variant itself, or to a combination of factors with behavior,” he said.
He said the strain had also been identified in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia, where there was a case that did not spread further.
“The longer this virus spreads, the more opportunities it has to change,” he said. “So we really have to do everything we can right now to prevent the spread, and minimizing that spread will reduce the chances of it changing.”
Susan Hopkins of Public Health England said that although the variant has been circulating since September, it was not until this week that officials felt they had enough evidence to declare it has a higher transmissibility than other circulating viruses. The strain has spread to other parts of the UK, but in smaller amounts than in London and surrounding areas, it told the BBC.
Germany has not yet expressed a ban, but is also considering limiting or stopping flights from the UK, the dpa news agency reported on Sunday. A senior German official told dpa that restrictions on flights from Britain are a “serious option”.
Europe has been surrounded this fall by rising new infections and deaths due to the resurgence of the virus, and many nations have re-imposed a number of restrictions to reign in their outbreaks.
Britain has recorded more than 67,000 deaths in the pandemic, the second highest number confirmed in Europe after Italy.
Johnson closed all non-essential shops, hairdressers, gyms and swimming pools on Saturday and told the British to reorganize their holiday plans. It is now not allowed to mix households inside level 4 zones, including London, and only essential displacement in and out of these zones is allowed. In the rest of England, they will be allowed to gather in Christmas bubbles for just one day instead of the five that were planned.
A video also surfaced on Saturday showing crowds hurrying to London train stations, apparently scribbling places in the UK with less stringent coronavirus restrictions before the new rules go into effect. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said “these scenes were totally irresponsible.”
“We, in government, of course have a responsibility, but so does every person,” he said. “The appeal I have is that people will play their part. Because only by acting – all of us – can we control it. “
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Raf Casert in Brussels, Sylvia Hui in London and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed.