EU agrees ‘dark red’ COVID-19 zones with stricter journey restrictions

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Hotspots of COVID-19 an infection in the European Union will be labelled “dark red” zones to discourage all but critical journey, EU governments agreed on Friday.

© Reuters/HANNIBAL HANSCHKE
Berlin Brandenburg Airport

The EU has already set up a “site visitors gentle” process to designate the seriousness of the unfold of the novel coronavirus in each and every of its 27 states and to try out to limit travel.

But with bacterial infections soaring and contagious variants spreading most of the bloc is by now pink, so new dark purple zones would enable to distinguish really high-danger regions and also enable uphold principles necessitating testing on departure and quarantine.

EU ambassadors agreed the new measure, proposed by the European Fee, at a assembly in Brussels, EU diplomats told Reuters. The new colour will show areas with far more than 500 coronavirus bacterial infections for every 100,000 inhabitants over two months.

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At the identical time, Germany and other nations announced they meant to choose extra journey measures to curb the unfold of the virus, one EU diplomat said. Present-day EU presidency chair Portugal, which is jogging EU meetings from January to June, reported that any new journey steps ended up up to unique states.

© Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapane
The coronavirus ailment (COVID-19) outbreak in Rome

Germany is making ready entry bans for travellers from Britain, Portugal, Brazil and South Africa to limit the spread of the extra contagious variants of the coronavirus raging in these countries, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer reported on Thursday.

Belgium has barred residents from taking holidays abroad until eventually March to battle the unfold of the far more infectious virus variants. Even so, the EU govt Fee insists that critical workers and products will have to be able to cross borders effortlessly, part of EU guidelines guaranteeing totally free movement.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Robin Emmott Editing by Alex Richardson)