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France will stop all travel from Britain for 48 hours starting at midnight, including travel “related to the transport of goods by road, air, sea or rail,” the prime minister’s office said, after a new one appeared. Rapidly spreading coronavirus strain in the UK.
As companies struggle to move goods across the English Channel with days before Britain finally abandons the EU’s trade structures, “only unaccompanied freight will be allowed.”
“Flows of people or goods to the UK will not be affected,” the government added after a meeting chaired by President Emmanuel Macron.
The decision on air travel was in line with similar measures taken by Germany, Italy, Austria, Romania, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the new variant is “out of control”.
“This genetic variant does not seem to imply, at this stage of knowledge, greater severity or resistance to the vaccine,” said a statement from the French government.
The 48-hour window will allow time for coordination among the 27 EU states for a joint policy on travel to and from Britain, as well as to prepare for a “safe reopening,” the statement said, noting that this will involve testing for Covid- 19 before departure.
Meanwhile, Germany’s health minister said that EU experts believe existing vaccines against Covid-19 are effective against the new strain.
A spokeswoman for the World Health Organization in Europe said that “across Europe, where transmission is intense and widespread, countries must redouble their prevention and control approaches.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and EU heads Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel held a conference call on the matter today.
The Irish government will impose a 48-hour ban on flights from Britain due to fears about the spread of the new strain of Covid-19, while ferries will be limited to cargo trips.
The measure was agreed upon by the three coalition party leaders who held discussions this afternoon.
Read more: Questions and Answers: What is the new variant of the coronavirus?
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the infectiousness of the new strain had forced him to impose a blockade on much of England over the Christmas period.
Scientists first discovered the new variant, which they believe is up to 70% more transmissible, in a patient in September. And Public Health England notified the government on Friday when modeling revealed the full severity of the new strain.
But Britain’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty noted that while the new strain was much more infectious, “there is no current evidence to suggest that it causes a higher death rate or affects vaccines and treatments, although They are doing urgent work to confirm it. ” this.”
The new coronavirus has killed at least 1,685,785 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a count from official sources compiled by AFP this morning.
And with the onset of colder winter weather in the northern hemisphere, where respiratory diseases flourish, countries are preparing for new waves of Covid-19 with tighter restrictions, despite the economic damage such lockdowns caused earlier in the year. this year.
The Netherlands is under a five-week lockdown until mid-January with schools and all non-essential stores closed to stem the rise of the virus.
Italy also announced a new regime of restrictions until January 6 that included: limits on people leaving their homes more than once a day; closing nonessential shops, bars and restaurants; and restrictions on regional travel.
The rapid deployment of vaccines is now seen as the only effective way to end the crisis and the devastating economic shutdowns used to stop its spread.
Europe is expected to begin a mass vaccination campaign after Christmas after the United States and Great Britain, which have started giving injections with the approved vaccine Pfizer-BioNTech, one of the main candidates.
Russia and China have also started giving injections with their own domestically produced vaccines.
On Friday, the United States authorized Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, paving the way for millions of doses of a second puncture to be shipped to the worst-hit country in the world.
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