Spain latest to ban British travellers as EU remains divided on response to new strain
SPAIN became the latest country to cut travel links to Britain yesterday over the new, rapidly spreading strain of the coronavirus as the EU failed to agree on a joint travel ban.
The country announced it would ban travellers from the UK from today in coordination with neighbouring Portugal after crisis talks in Brussels produced no coordinated plan to avoid the chaos and confusion seen at airports and land borders. Spanish citizens and residents will be allowed to enter the country.
Madrid had insisted the EU should adopt a united policy on travel to avoid the new Covid strain, first identified in Britain and now seen in several other countries, from spreading further.
Berlin had called for an Eu-wide travel ban on the UK.
“It’s important that a halt to entries or a flight ban can’t be circumvented via other European Union member countries,” Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, told journalists.
Instead, at least 23 of the 27 members of the bloc have imposed travel bans on their own, many at the last minute, and with durations varying from a few days to several weeks.
The r a pi d, divide d European response caused chaos at airports and borders. British nationals arriving on the last flights into Germany on Sunday evening were forced to camp out overnight in airport terminals after German authorities refused them entry.
“We had to sleep on the floor. It was cold because the window had been left open. It was awful,” one passenger who was stranded at Hanover Airport told
newspaper.
The new strain has already been found in the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Italy and as far as Australia. However, a lack of virus sequence testing outside Britain also means it could be circulating more widely undetected, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in a report.
Two dozen more countries around the world blocked flights coming from Britain, including Russia, India, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Argentina.
The United States said a ban was “on the table” although a decision had not yet been announced.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious diseases expert, said he opposed suspending all flights from Britain to America over the new coronavirus strain.
Dr Fauci told CNN the US government should “without a doubt keep an eye on it” but stressed that “we don’t want to overreact” to the emerging issue.
On Saturday night, Britain alerted the World Health Organisation about a new variant of the coronavirus that may be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than earlier strains, days before a tense holiday season in which many European countries have had to tighten lockdown restrictions to avoid a third wave of infections.
‘It’s important that a halt to entries or a flight ban can’t be circumvented via other EU member countries’