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Following the discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus in Great Britain, Austria will also issue a landing ban for flights from Great Britain. The Foreign Ministry announced this to the APA on Sunday after the Health Ministry. “Quick action is the order of the day in this dangerous situation,” Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) said. Austria will therefore impose a landing ban on all flights from Great Britain.
“We must do everything possible to avoid this dangerous mutation of the virus,” argued Schallenberg in a message to the APA. “We have already informed the UK that we have to take this drastic measure to protect our people. Other European countries, such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy, have already taken similar measures today. The mutation shows the great danger that continues to exist. this virus. “
A regulation is required as the legal basis for the new measure. This is currently being resolved, he said Sunday afternoon at the request of the APA at the Health Ministry. Currently there are strict requirements, it had already been emphasized there: Great Britain is seen as a state with a higher risk of infection, so a quarantine obligation applies to those who enter the country. A free ten-day quarantine trial is possible after at least the fifth day. Meanwhile, NEOS health spokesman Gerald Loacker has criticized “government inaction.”
The Netherlands were the first to take appropriate action on Sunday morning, initially banning air traffic with UK passengers until January 1. At Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, connections to and from London were canceled on Sunday, as the international airport announced on its website on Sunday. Schiphol is an important center of Western Europe.
The Dutch government justified its move with a recommendation from the RIVM Institute for the Environment and Health to limit the introduction of this UK strain of virus as much as possible by restricting or controlling travel movements from the UK as much as possible.
A virus with the variant described in the UK had already been identified in a random sample in the Netherlands in early December, he said. Following the report from Great Britain, this case will be investigated and further examined who was affected, how the infection occurred, and whether related cases are known. Belgium will also cut flight and train connections from Britain starting at midnight, a government representative in Brussels announced on Sunday. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on VRT television channel that the suspension of flight and train connections would apply for at least 24 hours.
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio said in a Facebook post: “As a government, we have a duty to protect Italians.” That is why they are in the process of implementing the landing ban together with the Ministry of Health.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council President Charles Michel discussed Corona’s new situation in England in a phone call. According to information from the Elysee circles, the focus of Sunday’s discussions was a joint approach to the new variant of the corona virus that appeared there.
Macron has called a defense council for Sunday night. The German government also wants to restrict travel between Britain and South Africa. A corresponding regulation is currently being drawn up, a government spokesman said in Berlin on Sunday. The federal government of Berlin is in contact with the European partners.
Due to the rapid spread of a new variant of the corona virus in Britain, the British government had imposed a new closure for the capital London, among other places. The recently discovered variant is up to 70 percent more contagious than the previously known form, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday. But there is no evidence that vaccines against the mutation are less effective.
Quelle: What is / dpa / afp / reuters?
