Portugal announced Thursday (21.01.2021) that it will suspend all regular flights with the United Kingdom from next Saturday, except for humanitarian reasons.
After the EU Council meeting, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa confirmed that flights would be suspended from 00:00 on Saturday. “There will only be flights of a humanitarian nature and to bring Portuguese or English back home,” he said.
Costa advances that the community bloc decided to keep all internal borders of the European Union open, despite the “implementation of epidemic control measures”.
The Portuguese Prime Minister also confirmed that the possibility of issuing vaccination certificates for European citizens was discussed in the Council of the European Union.
Costa explained that “all people who have been vaccinated will receive a document proving this”, which will have medical effects, although, at the present time, there is no decision that the said document will have other uses in the future.
The council also evaluated the vaccination process in the European Union, added Costa, who stressed the importance of the production companies ’commitment to the contracts and the planned schedule so that“ there will be no further cuts in distribution. ”
In the case of Portugal, the prime minister explained that 202,000 vaccinations have already been given and that they are planning to end vaccination in nursing homes next week.
The Portuguese Prime Minister indicated that the Council insisted on the importance of all member states respecting the principle of unity “without parallel negotiations on vaccines”, to ensure access as soon as possible and ensure that until the end of summer. 70% of the adult population was vaccinated throughout the European Union.
In addition, during the meeting, the importance of the European Union’s joint efforts to support countries in Africa or Latin America was recognized in order to ensure the elimination of the epidemic globally. (efe)
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