Albania has decided to block all the flights from the United Kingdom until the 18th of January, extending with two more weeks the previous decision made by the Albanian government. The decision was taken as a preventive measure against the new version of SARS-CoV-2 which is circulating in alarming rates in the United Kingdom. The last three days have seen the highest infection rates in the UK since the beginning of the pandemic, with 58,784 new infections on Monday, 60,916 new infections on Tuesday, and 62,322 new infections today. To fight the new version of the virus, UK has imposed a nationwide lockdown, and many countries have adopted the measure of blocking all the flights from UK, making also obligatory the quarantine for everyone coming from the United Kingdom.
While different countries have reported cases of the new version of the virus, including Greece, Albania still has not yet seen any case of the new version of SARS-CoV-2. Although the current information suggests that the new mutated version circulates 70% faster than the old version, experts for the moment excludes the possibility that it could cause more severe illness or higher mortality. This was confirmed also by the Institute of Public Health of Albania back in December.
