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The Presidency of the Council has informed in a message on social networks of the agreement reached within the Integrated Political Response to Crises (IPCR) and has also asked the EU-27 to require testing and quarantine of passengers coming from these areas.
The decision coincided on Friday with the first confirmed case in Europe of a patient infected with the new variant ‘Nu’. It is a Belgian woman with symptoms of coronavirus who returned from a trip to Egypt 15 days ago.
Representatives of the EU-27 met in the early afternoon at the proposal of the European Commission to activate the “emergency brake”, which allows the closure of the external border with certain countries where variants of interest or concern are located.
Brussels took the initiative in response to the request of several Member States to take the step in this direction and the issue has received the support of the other partners at a meeting held in the EU capital in the framework of the IPCR at technical and ambassadorial level.
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“The Commission will propose, in close coordination with the Member States, to activate the emergency brake to stop air travel from the southern African region due to the worrying variant B.1.1.529,” the President wrote.
The Italian Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, signed the order banning the entry of citizens who have passed through South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and Namibia. Mozambique, Namibia and Swaziland.
The British government, meanwhile, has acted “extremely quickly” to introduce a ban from Friday to flights from six African countries with an approach focused on “security” to the new variant of the coronavirus detected in South Africa, explained today the Minister of Transport, Grant Shapps.
The London Executive bans from 12 GMT air services from six African destinations, including South Africa, due to the spread of the B.1.1.529 variant, which could make current vaccines less effective.
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“To take to the next Council of Ministers an agreement to restrict flights from South Africa and Botswana, and also from other countries, but in principle these two. And we are also going to adopt the requirement for high-risk countries not only to be vaccinated, but also to have an antigen and PCR test”, the minister assured on TVE.
France has suspended Friday flights from Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and Eswatini (former Swaziland) immediately and for at least 48 hours after the discovery of a new and worrying variant of the coronavirus.
“These measures seek to protect against the arrival of this virus,” said Health Minister Olivier Véran, who recalled that it is a new variant that spreads rapidly but that for the moment there are few cases.
For its part, the Dutch government has also decided this Friday to suspend all flights from southern African countries, although in this case, without detailing the duration of this suspension of air traffic.
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Controls were put in place at land ports and at the airport to prevent the coronavirus from entering the country, lacking adequate testing or medical treatment capabilities. So far, samples are being sent to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa.
Flights to and from Europe, Reunion Island and Mayotte are suspended. There have been no reported cases of carriers of the virus in question, but Malagasy nationals stranded in Seychelles, in India and on Reunion Island, under medical supervision until they comply with the quarantine dictated by WHO, also for fear of not having the necessary capacities to contain it once it enters the island. They must return to the island by March 19 at the latest.
A 14-day quarantine is applied to passengers from China, Italy, South Korea, Iran, Germany and France. Stringent border controls, particularly at crossings with South Africa, are in place to keep Mozambique free of the virus.