Covid 19 coronavirus: several European nations ban flights from the UK

The German government said it is banning flights from Britain in reaction to a new strain of coronavirus that is spreading rapidly in southern England.

The Transport Ministry said that all UK flights, with the exception of cargo flights, could no longer land in Germany as of midnight Sunday (European time).

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He did not immediately say how long the flight ban would last.

One by one, several European Union nations banned flights from the UK on Sunday and others were considering similar action in a bid to prevent a new strain of coronavirus spreading across southern England from establishing a strong position in the world. continent.

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 the 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.

A government spokesman in Germany said the country was working on a regulation to restrict travel between Germany and Britain to protect the country from the new variant of the coronavirus. The government said it was also in contact with its European partners about travel restrictions.

The Netherlands banned flights from the UK for at least the rest of the year, while Belgium issued a 24-hour flight ban starting at midnight and also stopped train links to Britain, including the Eurostar. Austria and Italy said they would stop flights from the UK, but did not say exactly when it would take place.

Italy’s Health Minister Roberto Speranza said an order signed on Sunday blocks flights from Britain and prohibits anyone who has been in the UK in the past 14 days from entering Italy. The order bans air travel until January 6.

The Czech Republic imposed stricter quarantine measures on people arriving from Great Britain. An EU official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were still ongoing, said Sunday afternoon that the European Commission was in contact with member states about the rapidly developing situation.

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.

Johnson said on Saturday that a new, fast-moving variant of the virus that is 70% more transmissible than existing strains appeared to be driving the rapid spread of new infections in London and southern England. But he stressed that “there is no evidence to suggest that it is more lethal or causes more severe disease,” or that vaccines will be less effective against it.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Sunday that he was banning flights for 24 hours starting at midnight “as a precaution.”

“There are a lot of questions about this new mutation,” he said, adding that he hoped to have more clarity by Tuesday.

The World Health Organization tweeted on 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.

“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, and minimizing that spread will reduce the chances of it changing.”

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.

Susan Hopkins of Public Health England 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 it has higher transmissibility than other circulating coronaviruses.

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.

“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’s 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.

The European Medicines Agency, meanwhile, 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. Household mixing is now not allowed within 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 rushing towards London train stations, apparently running towards places in the UK with less stringent coronavirus restrictions before the new rules went into effect. 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 and hospitalizations 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 on the part of a prime minister who, once again, has been caught behind the curve.”

Sylvia Hui reported from London. Raf Casert in Brussels, Colleen Barry in Milan, Karel Janicek in Prague and John Hanna in Washington contributed to this report. – AP