Covid: Flights shut down as EU discusses UK virus threat

EU officials are discussing a joint response to a new, more infectious Covid-19 variant in the UK, which has sparked travel bans by many countries.

Canada and India joined European states in blocking flights from the UK while Europe-bound train services via the Channel Tunnel have been halted.

The new variant is said to be up to 70% more transmissible but there is no evidence that it is more deadly.

There is also no proof to suggest that it reacts differently to vaccines.

French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said a protocol would be agreed within hours at the European Council meeting of government representatives to “ensure that movement from the UK can resume”.

There is an appetite in Brussels for a more co-ordinated response partly because the EU felt that at the beginning of the pandemic earlier in the year the member states had adopted an “every-country-for-itself” approach which threatened the very idea of European co-operation, BBC Europe Correspondent Kevin Connolly writes.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC News earlier that the new variant was “out of control”, while Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands announced they had already detected it.

Also on Monday, the EU’s medicines regulator is expected to recommend approving the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for use in all 27 states.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is meeting a week early to decide on the vaccine which is already being administered in the UK and in the US.

If it gives the green light, official approval from the European Commission is expected to follow on Wednesday and vaccine distribution may begin in some EU states as early as Sunday.

Which countries have acted and how?
France suspended all travel links, including freight lorries, with the UK for 48 hours from midnight (23:00 GMT) on Sunday. Thousands of lorries move between the countries every day.

Eurotunnel said it would suspend access to its Folkestone terminal for traffic heading to Calais. People booked to travel on Monday can get a refund. Trains will still run from Calais to Folkestone.

The ferry terminal at Dover is now closed for all accompanied traffic leaving the UK until further notice because of the French restrictions. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair a Cobra emergency response meeting to discuss the issue on Monday.

BBC