EU states begin suspending all flight travel from UK over new Covid strain

Authored by independent.co.uk and submitted by Pessimist2020

EU states have started suspending all incoming air travel from the UK amid mounting concern over a new strain of Covid-19.

The new variant of coronavirus apparently native to Britain is up to 70 per cent more transmissible than the original.

Germany, France and Ireland are the latest to have suspended travel, announcing the moves shortly after Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium made similar decisions. Bulgaria has also suspended travel from Britain, Reuters reported on Sunday evening.

A spokesperson for the German government said on Sunday afternoon that the country was working on a regulation to restrict travel from Britain to protect the country from the new coronavirus variant. It wasn't immediately clear when or for how long the restrictions would last.

Italian foreign minister Luigi di Maio meanwhile announced on Sunday morning: “As a government we have a duty to protect Italians. For this reason […] we are about to sign the provision to suspend flights with Great Britain. Our priority is to protect Italy and our compatriots.”

In the early hours of the morning, the Dutch health ministry issued a statement stating that a virus with the variant described in the UK had been identified in the Netherlands in early December.

It said that pending further investigation, any introduction of this virus strain from the UK must be “limited as much as possible” by controlling passenger movements from the country - with a flight ban applying until at the earliest 1 January 2021.

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Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo meanwhile said he was issuing the order for 24 hours starting at midnight "out of precaution," and that he hoped to have more clarity on Tuesday.

It comes after much of the UK was plunged into a lockdown days before Christmas on Saturday when Boris Johnson ordered a strict new lockdown for vast swathes of southeast England and London.

axisofadvance on December 20th, 2020 at 17:15 UTC »

Scientists have been mapping the different strains since the beginning and in doing so have been able to re-create its spread throughout the world. Interestingly enough, the Wuhan strain "L" seems to be all but extinct. Source.

Jossadiah on December 20th, 2020 at 16:49 UTC »

This strain has been identified in the UK as early as September, it's an understandable measure but certainly far too late.

coenjaerts on December 20th, 2020 at 15:27 UTC »

It is already too late

In the early hours of the same morning, the Dutch health ministry issued a statement stating that a virus with the variant described in the UK had been identified in the Netherlands in early December.

If this mutation is more contagious the harm is probably already done.

Edit: with this mutation being more contagious the harm being done is more on the spread of the virus than on the lethality