Several countries have suspended flights to the United Kingdom after revelations that a new strain of coronavirus was reportedly spreading across southern England.
Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium have all halted flights, but with varied measures. France also suspended trips across its Channel freight.
A meeting with European Union nations will discuss a more coordinated response come Monday, according to BBC. Five EU governments initially said they made the decision to halt travel to the U.K., after tougher measures were imposed over the weekend in London and its surrounding areas by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to the Associated Press.
Italy’s foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said the country would halt flights from the U.K. “to protect Italians” from the variant, while Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced a 24-hour flight ban would begin Sunday at midnight “out of precaution.”
The Netherlands banned flights from the U.K. for at least the rest of the year, and the Czech Republic imposed stricter quarantine measures from people arriving from the U.K. Austria also announced a temporary flight ban but issued no immediate details on what it would entail.
In Ireland, which has a large number of passenger traffic with the U.K., especially around the holiday season, the government announced a minimal 48-hour ban from midnight and urged people from Britain not to travel to Ireland by air or sea.
Turkey and Switzerland have also temporarily banned flights to and from the U.K.
The new strain of coronavirus was identified in southeastern England in September and has been circulating in the area since its discovery.
The U.K. has identified more than 1,000 cases of the variant strain in 60 different local health authorities.
Last week, U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said there was no reason to think that the variant strain would cause more severe cases of COVID-19 or that it would be resistant to vaccines.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead on COVID-19, said the strain has also been identified in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Australia. However, health experts around the globe believe the approved coronavirus vaccines will still be able to tackle the new strain.
Worldwide, the virus has infected over 75 million people and killed more than 1.5 million.
