Brussels — European Union executives on Wednesday called on Blocking countries to temporarily suspend non-essential travel from India to limit the spread of the COVID-19 mutant.
The European Commission has reclassified the B.1.617.2 variant of COVID-19 found in India as a “mutant of concern”, following the proposal of the World Health Organization on Monday, and said “the variant of interest”. He said he issued a warning.
EU countries said in a statement that “emergency braking” should be applied to non-essential trips from India.
“It is important to minimize the categories of travelers who can travel from India for essential reasons and to have rigorous inspection and quarantine arrangements for travelers who may travel from India,” he added. ..
Last week, the European Commission said that 27 EU member states will relax COVID-19 travel restrictions from June, allowing foreign travelers from more countries to enter the block while at the same time being healthy. He proposed to maintain the option to quickly limit travel from countries where conditions deteriorate rapidly.
Member States have not yet adopted this recommendation, but they can individually choose to ban non-essential travel from India before it is adopted.
India’s coronavirus deaths exceeded 250,000 on Wednesday, the deadliest 24 hours since the pandemic began. Experts around the world have expressed concern that the first identified variant can be highly contagious.
The European Commission has stated that limited exemptions need to be applied to proposed suspensions of travel from India, including those traveling for “family urgent reasons”, EU citizens and long-term residents.
These travelers will have to face additional health measures upon arrival in the EU, including rigorous inspection and quarantine requirements, he said.
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