European countries ban UK flights to fend off new Covid-19 strain

A traveller checks the flight departures at Schiphol Airport, near Amsterdam, in the Netherlands (Peter Dejong/AP)

Several European countries are imposing bans on flights from the UK in an attempt to make sure that a new strain of coronavirus sweeping parts of southern England does not reach their shores.

The Netherlands is banning flights from the UK for at least the rest of the year while Italy’s foreign minister Luigi Di Maio also announced curbs were being imposed.