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One by one, several European Union nations have banned flights from the UK and others were considering such action, all in the hope of preventing a new strain of coronavirus spreading across southern England from establishing a foothold. solid on the continent.
France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Italy announced restrictions on travel to the UK, hours after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that Christmas shopping and gatherings in southern England should be canceled due to rapid spread of infections attributed to the new variant of the coronavirus.
Johnson immediately put those regions into a strict new Level 4 restriction level, changing the Christmas plans of millions.
France has banned all travel from the UK for 48 hours starting at midnight Sunday, the prime minister’s office announced. The French statement said the short two-day period would give authorities time to find a “common doctrine” on how to deal with the threat. He specified that “the flows of people or transport to the United Kingdom are not affected.”
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Peter Dejong / AP
A traveler wearing a face mask checks flight departures at Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Netherlands is banning flights from the UK for the rest of the year in a bid to ensure that a new strain of the Covid-19 virus in Britain does not reach its shores.
Germany said that all flights from Britain except cargo flights could no longer land after midnight Sunday. He did not immediately say how long the flight ban would last.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said he banned flights for 24 hours starting at midnight “as a precaution.”
Belgium also stopped train links to Great Britain, including the Eurostar.
“There are a lot of questions about this new mutation,” he said, adding that he hoped to have more clarity by Tuesday.
Johnson said on Saturday that a new, fast-moving variant of the virus that is 70 percent more transmissible than existing strains appeared to be driving the rapid spread of new infections in London and southern England in recent weeks.
But he stressed that “there is no evidence to suggest that it is more lethal or causes more serious disease,” or that vaccines will be less effective against it.
On Sunday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock added to the alarm when he said “the new variant is out of control.” The UK had 35,928 more confirmed cases, about double the number a week ago.
Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, called a special crisis meeting on Monday to coordinate the response to the news about the virus among the 27 member states of the bloc.
Toby Melville / AP
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was no evidence to suggest that the new Covid variant is more lethal or causes more serious disease, or that vaccines are less effective against it.
The Netherlands banned flights from the UK for at least the rest of the year. Ireland issued a 48-hour flight ban. Italy said it would block flights from the UK until January 6, and an order signed Sunday bars anyone who has been to the UK in the past 14 days from entering Italy.
The Czech Republic imposed stricter quarantine measures on people arriving from Great Britain.
High-speed rail operator Eurostar canceled its trains between London, Brussels and Amsterdam from Monday, but kept the trains operating on the London to Paris route.
Beyond Europe, Israel also said it was banning flights from Britain, Denmark and South Africa because those were the countries where the mutation is found.
The World Health Organization tweeted Saturday night that it was “in close contact with UK officials about the new variant of the # Covid19 virus” and promised to update governments and the public as more becomes known.
The new strain was identified in south-east England in September and has been spreading in the area ever since, a WHO official told the BBC on Sunday.
Peter Dejong / AP
EU governments said they were taking action in response to tougher measures imposed on Saturday by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in and around London.
“What we understand is that it has a higher transmissibility, in terms of its ability to spread,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on Covid-19.
Studies are underway to better understand how fast it spreads and whether “it is related to the variant itself or a combination of factors to behavior,” he added.
He said the strain had also been identified in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia, where there was one case that did not spread further.
“The more this virus spreads, the more opportunities it has to change,” he said. “So we really need to do everything we can right now to prevent the spread.”
Viruses mutate regularly, and scientists have found thousands of different mutations among samples of the virus that causes Covid-19. Many of these changes do not affect how easily the virus spreads or the severity of symptoms.
British health authorities said that while the variant has been circulating since September, it wasn’t until last week that officials felt they had enough evidence to declare that it has higher transmissibility than other circulating coronaviruses.
Patrick Vallance, the British government’s chief scientific adviser, said officials are concerned about the new variant because it contains 23 different changes, “an unusually large number of variants” that affect how the virus attaches itself to cells in the body. and enters them.
Officials are not sure if it originated in the UK, Vallance added. But in December, it said it was causing more than 60 percent of infections in London.
President-elect nominee Joe Biden as the United States surgeon general said Sunday that the emergence of the new strain does not change public health guidance on precautions to reduce the spread of the virus, such as use of masks, social distancing and hand washing.
National Institutes of Health / AP
Patrick Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, said officials are concerned about the new variant because it contains 23 different changes.
“While it appears to be easier to transmit, we still have no evidence that this is a more deadly virus for a person who gets it,” Vivek Murthy said on NBC. Meet the press.
“There is no reason to believe that the vaccines that have been developed will not be effective against this virus either.”
Europe has been hit this fall by rising new infections and deaths due to the resurgence of the virus, and many nations have reimposed a series of restrictions to control its outbreaks.
Britain has seen more than 67,000 deaths in the pandemic, the second highest confirmed figure in Europe after Italy. Europe as a whole has recorded nearly 499,000 deaths from the virus, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally that experts believe is an undercount, due to limited testing and missing cases.
Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency will meet on Monday to approve the first Covid-19 vaccine for the 27 nations of the European Union, bringing vaccines closer to millions of EU citizens. The vaccine made by the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech and the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer is already used in the United States, Great Britain, Canada and other countries.
The EMA advanced its evaluation of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine a week after strong pressure from EU governments, especially Germany, which has said that after the approval of the EMA it could start vaccinating citizens next Sunday.
In an urgent speech to the nation on Saturday, Johnson ordered the closure of all nonessential shops, barber shops and gyms in London and much of southern England and told the British to reorganize their holiday plans.
Indoor home mixing is not allowed in the region, and only essential travel is allowed.
In the rest of England, people will be able to gather in Christmas bubbles for just one day instead of the planned five.
After speaking, videos surfaced online showing crowds of people at London train stations, apparently racing to places in the UK with less stringent coronavirus restrictions. Health Secretary Matt Hancock called those scenes “totally irresponsible.”
While Hancock insisted officials had acted “very quickly and decisively,” critics said the British Conservative government should have moved against rising infections much earlier.
“The alarm bells have been ringing for weeks, but the prime minister decided to ignore them,” said Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labor Party.
“It is an act of gross negligence by a prime minister who, once again, has been caught behind the curve.”
