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– We are preparing a decision on a travel ban from the UK. It should be able to take effect as soon as possible, Interior Minister Mikael Damberg (S) told SVT on Sunday evening.
Exactly how the decision will be formulated is not yet clear, writes SVT, there is no information on when the shutdown will take effect, how long it will last and what exceptions will be relevant. The ban will apply to travelers by car, boat and plane. Swedish citizens cannot be detained, but may be forced to quarantine upon arrival in Sweden.
– We are having a discussion with the Public Health Agency at the moment about how returning Swedes should think and what efforts are required for this, says Mikael Damberg.
According to the Swedish Public Health Agency Stopping the flight is a “reasonable precaution in the situation that has arisen.”
“On Monday 21 December the authority will supplement the government’s decision with the rules that will apply to those who, after all, will arrive from the UK in the near future (i.e. Swedish citizens who cannot be denied entry) and to those who have already arrived in Sweden in recent times, ”the authority writes on its website.
SAS Sweden press manager Freja Annamatz told TT that the airline has yet to make a decision on whether flights from the UK will be canceled.
– We have a flight tonight landing from UK, and then we’ll see how it progresses and evaluate it. But what we do is respect the travel restrictions that come, and that means that in the long run we will probably have to cancel trips, says Freja Annamatz.
Swedavia, which operates Arlanda Airport, among other places, has not yet been informed of new restrictions and therefore does not take any special measures for flights from the UK, the company’s press service reported to TT.
The alarm about the newly discovered virus strain in the UK, which is spreading up to 70% faster than the common coronavirus, has caused concern in Europe. Following Boris Johnson’s announcement on Saturday, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, France, Germany and Bulgaria have decided to detain travelers from the UK. The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on European countries to take greater controls due to the spread of the new mutated variant.
On Sunday evening, representatives of the EU countries held a quick video meeting to exchange information on the measures to be taken the following day.
On Monday morning, the German Presidency called a meeting of EU ambassadors to discuss new measures.
In London, Boris Johnson will lead a crisis meeting on the consequences of Europe appearing to quarantine Britain, Reuters reports.
Earlier on sunday The moderates and liberals demanded that Sweden stop traveling from Britain.
– I think it was a mistake that Sweden in spring did not take care of itself more, with, for example, the quarantine for those who returned home from infected areas in other parts of the world. With the high spread of the infection that Sweden has today, and medical care strained, there are strong reasons to be as careful as possible not to bring this new variant of the coronavirus to Sweden, says Ulf Kristersson in a comment written to DN.
According to the Swedish Public Health Agency So far there are no established cases of the new variant of the virus in Sweden.
– So far, only a few samples from November and December have been sequenced, so it is not possible to draw definitive conclusions about the appearance of the variant in Sweden, says department head Karin Tegmark Wisell in a statement.
However, the European Agency for the Control of Communicable Diseases has detected isolated cases in Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. On Sunday evening, the Italian Ministry of Health declared that the new mutation had been discovered in a person who had traveled from Great Britain. At the same time, the EU infection control authority ECDC states that “a continued spread of this variant outside the UK cannot be ruled out”.
British Minister of Health Matt Hancock warned Sunday morning that he had no control over the new variant of the virus and urged everyone in areas covered by the level 4 restrictions, from Saturday, including London, to act as if they were infected.
The new level means that the easing of restrictions that would apply for five days during the weekends will not go away. Instead, it will be a one-day opening for Christmas celebrations for Londoners and just one other home.
Hancock claims it will be It is very difficult to control the new virus before the vaccination campaign arrives, according to Reuters.
Although the newly discovered strain of virus spreads faster than the old one, there is no evidence that it makes you sicker. It is also not believed that there is any difference when it comes to the vaccine, which is believed to have the same effect in the new strain.
