stop on flights from the UK- Corriere.it



[ad_1]

From our correspondent
LONDON Red alert in Europe for the new variant of the coronavirus that arrives from England: theItaly, Holland, Germany, France, Belgium and Austria they blocked flights leaving from Great Britain, while Eurostar suspended train service. Other countries are also preparing to introduce restrictive measures and even Scotland closed the border with England. French President Emmanuel Macron, who is isolated because he is positive for Covid, last night contacted German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to coordinate a European response.

The Corriere has created a newsletter on the coronavirus. It’s free: sign up here.

British Health Minister Matt Hancock admitted that the new virus,which is more contagious than 70%, is now “out of control»: Almost registered yesterday 36 thousand new infections, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. This variant of Covid, the World Health Organization said, has also been identified in Denmark, Holland and Australia: but it originated in the south of England. That is why London and the surrounding areas have now been placed in total lockdown, with nonessential shops shutting down, as well as pubs, restaurants, barber shops, cinemas, theaters and museums. In fact, Christmas has been “canceled” for 16 million citizens, with a ban on meeting with people outside the family unit. Also for this reason many Londoners, between Saturday and Sunday, they stormed train stations to escape restrictions and spend Christmas out of town. A reaction labeled “irresponsible” by the government: all the inhabitants of the enclosed areas, Hancock said, should behave as if they had already contracted the virus.


Saturday Boris Johnson had ruled out using the police to enforce the new provisions: in England the emergency shutdown, unlike other countries like Italy, it has always been implemented voluntarily, with very few controls. But yesterday Hancock was faced for the first time with the possibility of deploying agents to the streets and stations..

Yesterday anyway the the streets of central London were deserted, as had not happened since last spring: with the stores closed, instead of the traditional Christmas crowd, the show offered was that of one ghost city. But the most heartbreaking news is that the blockade in the capital could last for months: the government has admitted that not even the latest measures are capable of actually containing the new variant of the virus and that the only hope is in the vaccine. A prospect that has shaken both politics and business: many MPs from the ruling Conservative Party oppose the shutdown and have called for a vote in Parliament, which the government has no intention of granting before January.

December 20, 2020 (change December 21, 2020 | 00:12)

© REPRODUCTION RESERVED



[ad_2]