EU countries are moving to halt travel from the United Kingdom over concerns about a new, infectious strain of the coronavirus.
The Netherlands announced a flight ban Sunday from the U.K. while Belgium will impose a 24-hour stop on all travel from Britain to Belgium. Italy’s Foreign Affairs Minister Luigi Di Maio also said Sunday that in its “duty to protect Italians,” the government would suspend flight links with the U.K.
The Irish government announced Sunday that passengers intending to travel from Britain to Ireland for non-essential reasons will be barred from aircraft and ferries from midnight for at least two days.
Other countries look set to follow as both France and Germany are “seriously” considering a halt to flights. Paris will make an official decision on Sunday and is looking for EU coordination, according to BFM TV. A German government statement said Berlin was working on new restrictions and was in contact with its European partners.
The restrictions come as politicians and scientists consider how to respond to an emerging variant of the coronavirus that is spreading fast in southern England.
The Dutch flight ban, effective from 6 a.m. CET on Sunday, could remain in place until January 1, the government said. The Netherlands said it would consider adding restrictions on other modes of transport and would also coordinate with other EU countries to prevent the strain moving from the U.K. to the Continent.
In Belgium, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced the government would close the borders to travelers from the U.K. for a 24-hour period starting midnight on Sunday. “Of course, that could be extended should it appear that we have more conclusive data,” he said.
The Belgian government said it is also in talks with French authorities to closely monitor people arriving from the U.K. by car and will ramp up checks at the border. In the meantime, people arriving from the U.K. are required to quarantine — something they faced anyway under Belgium’s existing travel rules.
“This strain of the virus is thought to spread more easily and more quickly and is also harder to detect,” the Dutch government said in its warning.
Ireland’s travel ban involves air and sea connections with Britain, but not travel by road from Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K.
One opposition politician welcomed the travel ban but warned that the COVID-19 variant prevalent in Britain probably already has arrived in Ireland. Labour Party lawmaker Duncan Smith said Ireland’s failure to test incoming passengers at airports and ferry terminals would be partly to blame.
“If this new strain is so widespread now in the U.K. then it is highly likely it could already have spread to Ireland, but we don’t have testing at our frontiers to catch it,” Smith said.
Berlin is also mulling a flight ban as a “serious option,” according to German press agency DPA.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday evening announced new restrictions in London and the south-east of England in a bid to respond to rising case numbers. Johnson said scientific evidence suggested the new strain was up to 70 percent more transmissible than earlier variants.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was in “close contact” with U.K. officials about the new strain, and that it would update governments and the public “as we learn more about the characteristics of this virus variant.”
Maria Van Kerkhove from the WHO told the BBC that the new variant had been detected in Denmark and the Netherlands, as well as a case in Australia.
The Dutch government confirmed that a single case was reported in early December and was being investigated further. “Pending further details and greater clarity on the situation in the United Kingdom, RIVM [the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment] has advised that the risk of the new virus strain being introduced to the Netherlands should be minimised as much as possible by restricting or regulating travel from the U.K.,” the Dutch announcement said.
Shawn Pogatchnik contributed reporting.
This story has been updated.