Multiple European countries ban travel from UK over new Covid strain

European countries have begun to close their doors to travellers from the UK after the discovery of a fast-spreading strain of Covid-19 in England.

As the World Health Organization called on its members in Europe to step up measures, countries including France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands announced bans on travel from the UK.

France said it was suspending passenger and human-handled freight transport for 48 hours from midnight, and that the time would be used to agree on a new testing regime in collaboration with its European Union partners.

Germany, which is suspending flights from midnight on Sunday, has not yet detected the new strain but is taking reports from the UK “very seriously”, its health minister Jens Spahn said.

A German government source told Agence France-Presse the restriction could be adopted by the entire 27-member EU and that countries were also discussing a joint response over sea, road and rail links with Britain.

Belgium is also suspending flight and Eurostar arrivals from Britain from midnight. The prime minister, Alexander De Croo, said the ban would initially be in place for at least 24 hours.

Italy’s foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, said the government had decided to act after the UK raised the alarm about the new strain. “As a government we have the duty to protect Italians and for this reason, after having warned the British government, the health ministry will sign a provision for the suspension of flights with the UK,” he said. “Our priority is to protect Italy and our compatriots.”

Di Maio offered no more details, but flights arriving in Italy from the UK on Sunday are not thought to be affected. Austria is also planning to ban flights, but is still working out the details..

The Dutch ban, which came into effect from 6am local time on Sunday, will last until 1 January. Ireland will impose restrictions on flights and ferries from Britain from midnight, while Bulgaria is suspending flights from and to the UK from midnight until 31 January. Romania also said it banned all flights to and from the UK for two weeks starting on Monday afternoon.

The German chancellor Angela Merkel held a conference call with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel about the matter.

The Spanish government said it had asked the European commission and the European council to come up with a “joint, coordinated response” to the situation, but that it would “act in defence of the interests and rights of Spanish citizens” if one was not forthcoming. The European commission has not said whether a prohibition on travellers from the UK would be recommended for all EU countries.

The WHO said it was in close contact with British officials, and that outside the UK nine cases of the new strain had been reported in Denmark, one in the Netherlands and one in Australia. “Across Europe, where transmission is intense and widespread, countries need to redouble their control and prevention approaches,” a spokeswoman for WHO Europe said.

Were it to continue into January, the travel disruption could exacerbate transport problems caused by Brexit as Britain leaves the EU’s single market, which guarantees movement within its borders.

Israel, too, imposed new measures on Sunday, barring entry to non-citizens arriving from the UK, Denmark and South Africa, citing fears about Covid variants. Israeli citizens arriving from those countries will have to enter isolation at state-run quarantine hotels for up to 14 days.

The hastily enacted decision led to confusing scenes at Israel’s international airport, where according to domestic media about 130 passengers on two flights from London were informed of the new quarantine requirements on arrival. Police were called to the scene after several people refused, Channel 12 news reported, and 12 decided to return to the UK.

Ellen Steel, a British–Israeli citizen on one of the flights, said she was ordered to board a crowded bus without being told where she was going. “At Luton, check-in was normal, but then they called boarding 1.5 hours early. At the gate, they turned everyone away [all non-Israelis] who had a British passport,” she told the Times of Israel.

“When we landed someone from the health ministry came on [the plane] and announced we’d all have to go to hotels. If we wanted to have a fight about it we could but only at the hotel and not before,” she said. Police escorted the buses, she added.

The UK government announced emergency restrictions after Public Health England said it had identified more than 1,100 cases of a new variant of coronavirus that may be speeding up the spread of the virus, particularly in south-east England.

AFP and the Associated Press contributed to this report