PARIS | From Canada to Morocco, from Ireland to France, travel restrictions are increasing to contain the alarming spread of the Omicron variant, in the face of which European leaders stressed on Thursday the urgency to speed up vaccination.
• Read also: Good luck with a refund
• Read also: Omicron variant: another Christmas under close surveillance everywhere on the planet
As the end of the year holidays approach, France will re-establish from Saturday the obligation to justify “compelling reasons” for travelers coming from and going to the United Kingdom, where the contaminations reached Thursday a new record, with 88,000 cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours.
This epidemic outbreak linked to the Omicron variant has prompted the British to overturn their plans for the Christmas holidays: “Christmas parties” of companies or canceled shows in the West End district of London, travel plans in France which fall to the last. ‘water.
Queen Elizabeth II, 95, has also given up on her traditional family reunion, which was to bring together around 50 people on Tuesday at Windsor Castle.
The validity of tests on departure from the United Kingdom has been reduced from 48 to 24 hours and an isolation system on arrival in France is also in place, the French government said, while calling on all travelers to “defer their travel ‘to the UK.
The objective of these restrictions is to “slow down as much as possible the arrival of cases of the Omicron variant on our soil, the time that we vaccinate with booster doses,” according to government spokesperson Gabriel Attal.
He said 240 cases of the Omicron variant had been detected, but estimated that “there are probably more” in France. Nearly 3,000 patients are currently in intensive care in the country and the figure should reach 4,000 by the time of the end of the year holidays, according to him.
A health defense council is to be held on Friday, at a time when new health measures are on the table.
“Race against time”
In Brussels, the difficult coordination in the face of the progression of the new variant was at the heart of the summit of the leaders of the Twenty-Seven on Thursday, while Omicron could become dominant in Europe by mid-January, according to the European Commission.
Some countries such as Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Greece already require European travelers, even vaccinated, to present a negative test to be able to enter their territory.
“The extension of vaccination to all and the administration of booster doses are crucial and urgent,” the leaders said after a debate on the spread of the new variant.
“It’s a race against time,” commented Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Some 67% of the European population is fully vaccinated but this rate is below 50% in three countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia).
The issue of compulsory vaccination, which Austria and Germany are preparing to impose, should also be addressed, even if the subject is the choice of each state.
Denmark, for its part, became the first EU country on Thursday to authorize anti-Covid molnupiravir treatment from the American laboratory Merck, for at-risk patients with symptoms.
At the same time, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved two new treatments for Covid-19, the monoclonal antibody treatment of GlaxoSmithKline as well as an immunosuppressive drug already authorized in the EU for the treatment of various inflammatory conditions.
GSK treatment “dramatically reduces” hospitalizations in at-risk patients, according to the EMA. As for the Swedish Sobi’s Kineret treatment, it can “prevent the development of severe respiratory failure in patients with COVID-19”.
The agency has also approved the emergency use in the EU of Pfizer’s anti-Covid pill, which has not yet received full marketing authorization.
Canada advises against travel
Across the Atlantic, the Canadian government on Wednesday advised against non-essential travel abroad and will strengthen border controls.
Morocco will also soon close its borders in the face of the “lightning” spread of the new variant and the appearance of a first case of Omicron in the country.
The authorities have decided to put an end from December 23 to the system put in place to allow Moroccans stranded abroad to return to their country.
In Russia, MEPs on Thursday approved an amendment making it compulsory to present a health pass to access certain public places.
South Korea has reinstated mandatory closing times for cafes, restaurants, cinemas and other public places, and limiting gatherings to four people.
Only China remains calm: it said Thursday it had reached a total of exactly 100,000 Covid-19 patients since the start of the pandemic, two years after its appearance in the center of the country.
Since then, the pandemic has killed at least 5,328,762 people worldwide, according to a report established by AFP from official sources.