RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Wednesday, March 14, Belgium requested coordinated action from the European Union (EU) to suspend the flow of flights with Brazil, which is facing its worst moment in the Covid-19 pandemic and has exceeded 360,000 deaths due to the infection, according to data from the National Council of Health Secretaries.
The request was made after France interrupted until “second-order” flights to or from the Brazilian territory to avoid disseminating a variant of the new coronavirus.
The Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander de Croo, said that his government is in talks with the Netherlands and Germany to adopt the same position as the French.
According to AFP news agency, for Belgian Transport Minister Georges Gilkinet, the European bloc needs to impose the same measure on air passenger traffic with Brazil. Belgium, however, has no direct flights to the country.
Currently, Brazil registers 361,884 deaths from Covid-19, not counting underreporting, second only to the United States in absolute numbers.
The country is experiencing its worst moment of the pandemic, with daily records in the numbers of victims and cases and collapses in the public health system.
Source: Veja