[ad_1]
04:12 pm
Sunday 20 December 2020
I wrote – Rana Osama:
European countries rushed to halt flights from Britain hours later to re-impose a stone on London and south-east England, in an attempt to stop another wave of infections attributed to a new strain of the Corona virus, which was described as “more dangerous”.
The danger of the new strain of Covid-19 is that it will spread faster than its predecessor, by 70 percent, but it is not believed to be more deadly than it. There is no evidence that it interacts differently with the vaccine, according to England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty.
In Britain, the worst-hit European country, along with Italy, the virus has killed more than 67,000 people. The British government began offering the Covid-19 vaccine, developed by the American company “Pfizer” and the German company “Biontech”, on December 8, as the first Western country to initiate mass vaccination.
Currently around 38 million people in England, representing 68 per cent of the population, live in a “very high” alert zone, the strictest levels of restrictions including the closure of bars, restaurants and museums. , as well as the prohibition of mixing between different families, and not even leaving the house. December 30 at the earliest.
4 countries commenting
Meanwhile, the Netherlands banned air travelers from Britain “as a precautionary measure” from 6:00 (05:00 GMT) on Sunday until January 1, the Dutch government said.
The Dutch government said it would join other European Union countries to discover ways to limit the spread of this species in Europe, noting that a travel ban on other means of transport “is still under discussion.”
The Netherlands, with a population of just over 17 million people, has so far recorded 677,000 HIV infections and 10,000 deaths.
In a statement, the Dutch Ministry of Health recommended that any entry of this strain of the virus from Britain be “limited as much as possible by restricting and / or controlling the movement of passengers from the UK”, asking Dutch citizens to avoid travel except in cases of extreme need.
The Netherlands is currently imposing a 5-week lockdown until mid-January, with schools and non-essential shops closed, to slow the spread of the epidemic.
According to Dutch Health, “a study of an infection in the Netherlands in early December revealed a virus identical to the (new) strain in Britain.”
At the same time, Belgium, which recorded 623,760 cases of Covid 19, 18,545 deaths, announced the suspension of flights and train traffic from Great Britain, starting at midnight on Sunday (23:00 GMT).
“The suspension will last at least 24 hours,” Prime Minister Alexandre de Crow told Belgian television, “VRT”.
Austria and Italy have also suspended flights to and from Great Britain.
This comes at a time when Italian authorities decided to impose a blanket blockade across the country for most of the Christmas and New Year holidays, in an effort to deter the pandemic.
According to the new rules, unnecessary business activities will be closed during the period between December 24 and 27, between December 31 and January 3, as well as January 5 and 6, and the authorities will allow Italians travel only for work, medical and emergency reasons.
3 countries studying
In parallel, Germany, France and Israel are studying a similar decision, to deal with the new strain that is “out of control” in Britain, as British Health Minister Matt Hanock told the BBC.
AFP quoted a government source in Berlin as saying that the German government is considering taking a similar step, similar to that of the Netherlands, as a “serious option”, regarding flights from Britain and South Africa.
Germany, the most populous country in the European Union (83.1 million people), has registered 1.51 million injuries and more than 26,000 deaths from Covid 19.
Paris is also considering suspending flights and trains from Britain “seriously” in the context of combating the spread of the new Corona strain, according to French channel “BFMTV.”
The mini ministerial council on Corona affairs in Israel is also looking into the possibility of preventing visitors from Britain and Denmark from entering because of the new Corona strain.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said health authorities are studying the new strain and the possibility of treating it with currently available vaccines.
This comes as the World Health Organization announced that it is in close contact with British officials about the emergence of this strain, indicating that it has spread in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Australia, as well as Great Britain.
Maria Van Kerkhove, an American expert specializing in emergency infectious diseases at the WHO, warned of the growing ability of the new strain to spread, confirming that studies are underway to reveal the extent of this ability.
In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), he also expressed global health concerns over the emergence of new Corona chains, confirming that experts will continue to study the new strain with the aim of increasing their knowledge about the ability of the epidemic to mutate.
