BRUSSELS (AP) – Belgium is banning all leisure trips abroad for its citizens from next week to March, in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19 and its virulent variants.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Friday that “when people travel, the virus goes with them.”
He said visitors from Britain, South Africa and South America would have to be quarantined for ten days to make sure they did not bring dangerous varieties to Belgium.
The move comes one day after the 27 European leaders said the borders within the bloc should remain open to ensure essential transport and movement of workers, but left it to member states to take other measures they deem necessary.
In Belgium, only essential travel, family and humanitarian trips were allowed from next week until March. In recent years, Belgium has seen an increase in cases after popular holidays due to returning travelers. February is the traditional month for Belgians to go skiing in the Alps or fly south for warmth.
The EU itself is also preparing measures to make travel more difficult, including the introduction of new cross-border ‘dark red zones’ where infection rates are particularly high and where all non-essential travel needs to be discouraged. Travelers from these areas can be expected to undergo tests before leaving and being placed in isolation upon arrival at another location.
One of the hardest hit countries in Europe, Belgium, has reported more than 686,000 confirmed infections and 20,620 coronavirus-related deaths.
In recent weeks, Belgium has been able to combat the spread of the virus better than many other EU countries, and De Croo said he does not want to jeopardize it by traveling through the critical holiday next month.
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