Europe faces 2nd wave; Russia starts producing virus vaccine
Returning Brits begin quarantine under new rules; France sees resurgence of COVID-19 cases; Austria urges its citizens to return from Croatia; New Zealand reports 7 new virus cases
British holidaymakers returning home from parts of Europe began having to quarantine on Saturday under new restrictions, as a second wave of virus infections threatened more disruption and economic chaos on the continent.
Russia said on Saturday that it has produced the first batch of its coronavirus vaccine, ater President Vladimir Putin announced it had been first in the world to approve a vaccine.
“The first batch of the novel coronavirus vaccine developed by the Gamaleya research institute has been produced,” the health ministry said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies.
The UK opted to remove France, the Netherlands, Malta and several other countries from its list of places exempt from self-isolation rules, sparking a rush for plane, train and ferry tickets by Britons desperate to get back before the 4am (0300 GMT) change.
All travellers arriving from the three countries — as well as Monaco, and Caribbean island states Turks & Caicos and Aruba — ater the deadline must quarantine for 14 days.
French student Antoine, 23, cut short his holiday to rush back to Bristol, in southwestern England, where he is at university.
“I’m a waiter in a small cafe near college, I can’t afford to spend 14 days in the house,” he said at London’s St Pancras railway station ater arriving on a Eurostar train.
France is facing a resurgence of the disease that emerged in China late last year and has so far infected over 21 million people and killed more than 750,000 globally.
French authorities have reported more than 2,500 new cases on each of the past three days — levels not seen since May.
Meanwhile, Germany added most of Spain — where cases have also surged in recent weeks — to its list of regions from where arrivals must show a negative COVID-19 test or quarantine for two weeks.
Austria urged its citizens to return from popular Mediterranean destination Croatia before similar rules come into effect on Monday, while Serbia introduced mandatory testing for travellers from four neighbouring countries.
And thousands of Albanians queued for miles in their cars at the Greek border before tougher entry requirements designed to brake mounting infections began.
The United States also said it was extending a ban on non-essential travel through border crossings with Canada and Mexico throughout most of September “to slow the spread” of the disease.
Britain’s new quarantine rules, announced late on Thursday, prompted a frenzied 36-hour scramble to get home.
Eurotunnel, which operates a drive-on train service for cars through the Channel Tunnel, was fully booked on Friday while some air fares from France to the UK were more than six times more expensive than normal.
Fiona Nicholson, 47, a professor from the English city Portsmouth on holiday in southern France, told reporters from Nice airport on Friday that she had cut short her trip.
“I had planned to return on Monday but... I changed my flight to go back today so I don’t have to go on quarantine.”
“I’m sad that I’m missing some holiday but
I’m happy to comply.” French holidaymakers in Britain will face tough choices of their own, as Paris pledged to impose a “reciprocal measure.”
The Netherlands said it would advise against all but essential travel to Britain, but will not introduce a quarantine of its own for arrivals.
New Zealand on Saturday reported seven new cases of the coronavirus as a lockdown in the country’s biggest city, Auckland, was extended in response to the country’s first coronavirus outbreak in months.
Six of the seven new cases have been linked to the cluster responsible for all the previous community cases, while one case was being investigated, Director-general of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a media briefing in Wellington.
New Zealand and its neighbour Australia have suffered far less death and disease from the COVID-19 pandemic than many other nations, thanks in part to swit lockdown measures. Although economically costly, the measures raised public trust in the leaders of both countries significantly.