The new and potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus, which is currently circulating in part of Great Britain, was also identified in the Netherlands in early December. The Ministry of Health reports this. It will be investigated who it is, how the infection came about and whether there are any related cases.
The virus is spreading in part of England lightning fast around. As a precaution, the Netherlands is imposing a flight ban for air traffic with passengers from the United Kingdom from 06.00 this morning. The ban applies until 1 January at the latest and follows a recommendation from the RIVM, which states that travel movements from the United Kingdom must be limited as much as possible.
The prohibition does not apply to the transport of medical personnel. Freight transport is also excluded.
‘Limit virus import’
The government writes that it is still being investigated whether additional measures are necessary. “In the coming days, the government will, in close cooperation with other EU member states, look into the possibilities of further restricting the import of the virus from the United Kingdom,” the statement said.
Schiphol Airport says travelers flying from the UK to the Netherlands should contact their airline.
Rules tightened in England
In London and the south and east of England, the coronaregels tightened since midnight. All shops must be closed except supermarkets and pharmacies. Everyone should also work from home as much as possible.
Furthermore, residents of those areas are only allowed to celebrate Christmas with members of their own household and must stay at home as much as possible. Spending the night outside is not permitted, nor is traveling abroad.
In London, 62 percent of new infections would come from the new variant, with the name SARS-COV-2 VUI 202012/01. According to Prime Minister Johnson, it is already clear that it will not make you sicker. This variant would also not cause more fatalities than other variants.
Vaccines
According to the British Prime Minister, there is also no reason to believe that the vaccines that are available and that have yet to be released on the market will be less effective in this variant.
Professor of virology and OMT member Marion Koopmans also expects the developed vaccines to continue to work well against the new virus variant. But in the long term, the composition of the vaccines will have to be adapted to mutations in the virus, she said in the report yesterday. podcast Virusfeiten.
That is also the case with the flu. To keep an eye on the changed virus variants and to keep the vaccinations against them effective, “we have had a global system for decades. It looks like we need something like this for this virus as well.”
NOS op 3 explains in this video that it is inevitable that viruses mutate and it is usually harmless:
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