• Pandemic Closing of the Eurotunnel due to the new strain of coronavirus may deplete the UK

The member states of the European Union once again fail in their attempt to coordinate the response to the mutation of the coronavirus detected in British territory and which has led to the unilateral closure of the borders of a dozen countries, following a cabinet meeting in response to the Covid-19 crisis in which representatives of the 27 gathered and which lasted for more than three hours.

On Sunday, the British Government announced a travel ban for its citizens due to

to the

rapid increase in coronavirus cases in the country, just a few days before Christmas and after detecting a mutation of the coronavirus responsible for Covid-19.

In a matter of hours, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Italy and Austria decided to close their borders with the United Kingdom for fear of its expansion.

Now there are already 17 countries, including Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Czech Republic,

Spain

and Portugal.

The problem, as always since the crisis began, is that

there was no coordination between Member States

.

Belgium has suspended connections with

UK

between 24 hours and two weeks, depending on the evolution;

The Netherlands has banned air traffic for at least 10 days;

Spain and Portugal, indefinitely;

Greece will impose a mandatory quarantine on travelers from the country, regardless of whether they present a negative test upon arrival and France, which had decided to limit its connections with the United Kingdom for 48 hours, in order to allow time for a coordinated European response, will impose a test.

But that coordinated response, for now, does not come.

The cabinet of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, accelerated contacts with the capitals to try to unify the response to the outbreak, from the closure of borders to the reinforcement of controls on passengers coming from British territory.

The German Presidency convened the response cabinet to the Covid-19 crisis, which decided to coordinate measures at the European level.

Countries have limited themselves to sharing information on their measures and asking the European Commission for guidelines for a coordinated response

.

It is not the first time that the Executive drafts them and that in the end, each country continues to act as it sees fit.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the coordination of both the closure and the opening of the borders, as well as the disease control measures or the carrying out of tests have been chaos, with little coordination and with the intervention of the Commission in more one occasion to avoid blocking the goods.

A situation very similar to the current one.

The end of the meeting of the 27 experts coincided with the announcement by the European Medicines Agency of the authorization of the vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer and whose administration Europe also hopes to coordinate.

ECDC's response

Also during the meeting, a representative of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) spoke, which in a

report released Monday

noted that "there is not enough evidence to indicate the extent of the spread of the new variant of the virus outside the UK" and, therefore, "appropriate efforts are needed to prevent and control its spread."

The ECDC gives part of the new coronavirus variant responsible for Covid-19 in a report in which it highlights that "it is significantly more transmissible than the variants that were previously circulating," which would explain the rapid increase in cases in the United Kingdom in recent years. weeks.

Preliminary analyzes reveal an estimated potential to increase the reproductive rate by 0.4 or more and

an increase in transmissibility of up to 70%

.

The Center points out at the same time that at the moment there are no indications of a greater severity in the infection associated with this new variant of the virus.

In addition to asking the laboratories for greater control of this and other possible new strains that may appear and insisting on the need to respect the measures in place to contain the spread of the virus, the ECDC asks to monitor potential reactions or failures in vaccines that already are being administered in the UK, and which the European Medicines Agency has authorized.

"

At the moment we can say that there is no evidence to suggest that this vaccine would not work against the new variant

.

But these are issues that must be scientifically evaluated, "Cooke said at a virtual press conference.

The unilateral decisions to close the borders with the United Kingdom come in a politically sensitive context.

The island is isolated just 10 days after the end of the transition period and with an agreement still pending for the future relationship between the British and the 27 member states after the

Brexit

.

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