Several European countries have banned air travel from the UK after parts of England were placed into Tier 4 lockdown due to a new strain of Covid-19.
France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Italy and Austria have joined the Netherlands and Belgium in banning flights from the UK over the new strain.
The Netherlands was the first country to take the decision on Sunday (December 20), and the ban will be in place until the end of 2020.
Hours later Belgium suspended flights and halted rail travel for at least 24 hours, according to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, before Italy and Austria followed with their own measures.
It is not known how long Italy’s ban will in place for. Austria has said it would stop air travel but details have yet to be confirmed by the country’s authorities.
Germany, France, Luxembourg and the Republic of Ireland later suspended flights from the UK. Bans are in place for 48 hours from midnight Sunday to Ireland and France.
Those in Tier 4 areas have been banned from travel other than for essential reasons and the prime minister urged people across the UK to “carefully consider whether they need to travel abroad”.
Ireland is the only country to have banned UK flights which had a UK travel corridor in place.
The WHO said the same mutation of Covid found in the UK has been detected in the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia.