South African president hails chance to ‘turn the tide’; EU steps up guidance on non-essential travel from outside bloc; parts of China to suspend religious gatherings
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The European Union toughened its restrictions on visitors from outside the bloc on Monday, with travellers only allowed to enter freely from countries with very low numbers of cases and almost none of the more virulent variants.
Ambassadors for the bloc agreed the new measure for travel from non-EU countries, including Britain, at a meeting in Brussels, an EU diplomat told Reuters. Its copy outlined the following EU guidelines on non-essential travel:
EU countries are encouraged to grant access without restrictions, such as mandatory quarantines, only under strict criteria.
The visitor would have to come from a country with no more than 25 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over 14 days, an infection rate lower than in all EU countries.
The South African president Cyril Ramaphosa hailed the arrival of the first doses of Covid-19 vaccine on Monday as a chance to “turn the tide” on a disease that has devastated the country.
Once testing of the batches is completed, the first shots will be given to health workers, who have been stretched during a second wave of infections and have been critical of the government for not securing supplies sooner.
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