Austria won’t allow planes from Britain due to new strain of corona virus

After the Netherlands and Belgium, Austria also decided on Sunday not to allow UK passenger planes because a new strain of the coronavirus, 70 percent more contagious than before, had emerged in south-east England. Italy is planning a similar ban.

We have written before that both Benelux countries have suspended reception of British flights, but it is no longer possible to travel to Belgium by train from the island country. Now the MTI has made the news even clearer: the Netherlands will not accept flights from British territories until at least December 31, Belgium will introduce the ban for just 24 hours, starting at midnight on Sunday, but it has also stopped traffic. railway on the British route. Austria has also announced that it will not allow British planes to land at its airports, but the start date of the ban is not yet known. In Germany, for the moment, they are still considering what to do until the Czech Republic has stopped air traffic from the UK, but it has already tightened its quarantine rules for those coming from there. The Spanish government has asked the European Commission for guidance.

According to a Sunday statement from the World Health Organization (WHO), a more contagious strain of the virus had already been identified in the south-east of England in September.

and the same pathogen has been reported in Denmark (nine cases so far), as well as in the Netherlands and Australia, in one patient each. Maria van kerkhove, the head of the WHO technical group on COVID-19, told the British BBC media that research was already underway to explore the properties of the new strain of the virus.

The longer an epidemic lasts, the more opportunities the virus has to change. Therefore, we must do everything possible to prevent the spread of infection immediately, because in this way we can reduce the chances of the pathogen changing.

Said the specialist. The WHO, by the way, called on European countries on Sunday afternoon to toughen their measures against the spread of the epidemic.

Boris johnson The British prime minister announced on Saturday that the virus circulating in London and the south-east of England could be up to 70 percent more contagious than before. However, according to experts, no study data suggests changes that would make the new coronavirus mutation more serious than previous versions, and there is no indication that the vaccines developed to date are less effective against the new strain.