The caretaker cabinet has announced that the flight bans for passenger flights from the United Kingdom, South Africa, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela have been extended by one month. The flight ban for passenger flights from these countries has been extended until at least April 1. On January 23, the cabinet announced this flight ban. The flight ban is to minimize further spread in the Netherlands of the various coronavirus variants. The flight ban for flights from Cape Verde will be lifted on Thursday 4 March 00.01. The OMT has been asked by the Minister of Public Health to advise on the epidemiological need for a possible extension of flight bans. The OMT issued advice on this on 1 March last.
“As long as compliance with the quarantine policy in the Netherlands is insufficient, it is important to keep passenger flows to a minimum, especially from countries where the various VOCs (Variant or Concern) circulate. In addition to discouraging non-essential travel, flight and mooring bans can contribute to this and should be enforced. Given the still limited presence of the P.1.-variant from Brazil in the Netherlands, continuation of the ban for South and Central America is adequate. In view of the limited, but increasing spread of the South African variant in the Netherlands, it is not necessary to extend the flight ban to a larger part of Africa. Due to the extensive distribution of the UK variant, an extension of flight bans aimed at limiting imports of this variant is also not appropriate. The flight ban for Cape Verde cannot be substantiated with data. There are no signs of VOCs spreading in that country. A flight ban on Cape Verde therefore seems superfluous. ”
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