EB President: The EU proposes to stop air transport from the South African region

Until the latest variant of the coronavirus is better known, the European Commission recommends that member countries stop air transport from the South African region, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said in Brussels on Friday.

Ursula von der Leyen also stated in her statement that the scientific world supports the measure. He emphasized that passengers arriving from or returning home from the affected countries must comply with the strict quarantine rules.

Prior to the announcement of the EU precaution, several countries, including Israel, Singapore and the United Kingdom, already ordered travel restrictions against several African countries on Thursday: South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini - the former Swaziland - and Zimbabwe were suspended. aviation.

The new variant of the coronavirus discovered in the Republic of South Africa has been detected in Belgium, which is why the Belgian government is preparing to limit the reception of aircraft coming from the South African region and has introduced new strict measures to curb the epidemic, the French-language Belgian daily La Libre Belgique reported. on Friday. Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke announced on Friday that they know of one positive case of the new version of the coronavirus, which is considered to be more contagious than ever, with code B.1.1.529, in Belgium.

According to the British Minister of Health, the emergence of the newly identified version of the coronavirus also indicates that the global coronavirus epidemic is far from over. As of Friday, Great Britain suspended flights from six African countries for the duration of the investigation of the new coronavirus variant.

These countries will be placed on the travel red list by the British government from Sunday. This means that people arriving from these six countries, or who have visited these countries in the ten days before their arrival in England, must go to designated quarantine hotels for ten days. Those who do not belong to these three categories and have visited the six affected African countries in the ten days before their planned trip to England, cannot enter England.

Speaking to the BBC's Friday news program, James Naismith, a world-renowned research biology professor at the University of Oxford, said that the emergence of the new virus variant is "not a cause for despair", above all because the current vaccines are still effective.

Source: Magyar Hírlap