More EU countries are banning travel from the UK, for fear of a variety of viruses
BERLIN: A growing list of EU and Canadian countries banned travel from the UK on Sunday while others were considering a similar action, in a bid to stop a new strain of coronavirus sweeping across the south of England from spreading to the continent.
France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and Bulgaria have announced restrictions on UK travel, hours after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the need to suspend purchases and gatherings. Christmas in the south of England due to rapidly spreading diseases of the new coronavirus variable.
Johnson immediately placed these areas below a new Tier 4 tight limit, sustaining Christmas plans for millions.
France banned travel from the UK for 48 hours from midnight on Sunday, including lorries carrying goods through the tunnel under the English Channel or from the port of Dover on the south coast of England. French officials said the truce would buy time to find “common instruction” on how to deal with the threat, but threw the busy cross-channel route used by thousands of trucks every day. to chaos.
Port Dover tweeted on Sunday night that its ferry terminal had been “closed to all traffic leaving the UK until further notice is received due to border restrictions in France.”
Eurostar passenger trains from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam were also stopped.
Germany said all flights coming from Britain, with the exception of freight flights, were not allowed to land starting at midnight on Sunday. He did not immediately say how long the flight ban would last. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said he was issuing a 24-hour flight ban starting at midnight “out of warning.” “There are a lot of questions about this new move,” he said, adding that he hoped to gain more clarity Tuesday.
Canada announced its ban on Sunday night. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement that entry into Canada will be banned for 72 hours starting at midnight Sunday. “He said passengers arriving Sunday would be subject to high school screening and other health measures A follow-up statement from the government said flights had not been included in the ban.
The Central American nation of El Salvador, meanwhile, said it would deny entry to anyone who had visited Britain in the previous 30 days.
The British government said Johnson would attend a meeting of the government’s emergency committee, COBRA, on Monday following the measures of other countries. They come at a time of economic uncertainty for the UK, less than two weeks before it leaves the EU’s economic structures in December. 31, and with talks on a new post-Brexit trade relationship still unbroken.
Johnson said on Saturday that a rapid new outbreak of the virus that is 70% more communicable than existing strains appeared to be driving the rapid spread of new diseases in London and the south of England a few weeks ago. But he stressed that “there is no evidence that it is more deadly or worse,” or that vaccines will not be as effective.
On Sunday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock added the alarm when he said “the new variant is out of control.” The UK recorded an additional 35,928 cases, about twice the number a week ago.
Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency, convened a special emergency meeting on Monday to coordinate a response to the virus news coordinated among the 27 member states of the bloc.
The Netherlands banned flights from the UK for at least the rest of the year. Ireland banned a 48-hour flight. Italy has said it will suspend flights from the UK until Jan.6, and an order signed on Sunday prohibits entry into Italy by anyone who has been in the UK in the 14 days gone.
The Czech Republic imposed stricter quarantine measures from British nationals.
Outside of Europe, Israel also said it was banning flights from Britain, Denmark and South Africa because these were the countries where mutation could be found.
The World Health Organization tweeted late Saturday that it was “in close contact with UK officials about the new # COVID19 virus variant” and promised to update governments and the public as more is learned.
The new strain was identified in the south-east of England in September and has been spreading in the region ever since, a WHO official told the BBC on Sunday.
“What we understand is that it has made more of a transmission, in terms of its transmission capacity,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical director of 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 behavioral factors,” she said.
She said the strain was identified in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia, where there was one case that no longer spread.
“The longer this virus spreads, the more chances it will have to change,” she said. “So we really need to do everything we can to stop it spreading.”
Viruses circulate regularly, and scientists have found thousands of different mutations among samples of the virus that causes COVID-19. Many of these changes have no effect on how easily the virus spreads or how severe the symptoms are.
British health authorities said that although the variance has been circulating since September, it was not until last week that officials felt they had enough evidence to report a cross-section. put it higher than other circulating coronaviruses.
Patrick Vallance, the British government’s chief scientific adviser, said officials were concerned about the new variant as it contained 23 different mutations, an “unusually large number of mutations” affecting the virus. binds to and enters cells in the body.
Officials are not sure if he came from the UK, Vallance said. But by December, he said it was causing more than 60% of diseases in London.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. general surgeon Sunday said the emergence of the new strain will not change public health guidelines on measures to reduce the spread of the virus, such as wearing masks, social distance and washing hands.
“While it may seem easier to spread, we still don’t have evidence that this is a more deadly virus for someone who gets it,” Vivek Murthy told 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 halted by this fall in the wake of new diseases and deaths as a result of the revival of the virus, and many countries have re-established a series of restrictions to rule in the their times.
Britain has suffered more than 67,000 deaths in the pandemic, the second highest hole diagnosed in Europe after Italy. Europe as a whole has recorded nearly 499,000 virus deaths, according to a report from Johns Hopkins University that experts believe is an understatement, due to limited testing and missed cases.
The European Medicines Agency, meanwhile, is meeting Monday to approve the first COVID-19 vaccine for the 27 EU countries, bringing vaccines closer to millions of EU citizens. The vaccine made by German pharmaceutical company BioNTech and American drug retailer Pfizer is already in use in the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries.
The EMA moved its assessment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine a week after strong pressure from EU governments, particularly Germany, which, following EMA’s agreement, said it could start vaccinating citizens as early as next Sunday.
In an emergency speech to the country on Saturday, Johnson ordered all non-essential shops, hairdressers and gyms in London and large parts of the south of England to be closed and called on Britons to make their holiday plans reorganization. A mix of cities is not allowed in the area, and only essential travel is allowed. In the rest of England, people will be allowed to meet in Christmas bubbles for just one day instead of the planned five.
After speaking, online videos appeared showing a large crowd at London railway stations, apparently making a splash for places in the UK with less severe coronavirus restrictions. Health Secretary Matt Hancock called these scenes “completely irresponsible.”
While Hancock maintained that officials had acted “very quickly and conclusively,” critics said the British Conservative government should have moved against rising diseases. earlier.
“The warning bells have been ringing for weeks, but the prime minister has chosen to ignore them,” said Keir Starmer, leader of the Labor Party. again, caught behind the loop. ”