From midnight on December 22, it is forbidden to land in Poland from airports located, among others, in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The ban was introduced by the Polish authorities after a new variety of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was discovered in the UK.
The new restrictions mean that Great Britain and Northern Ireland were added to the list of nine countries which airplanes cannot land in Poland. The list of banned countries also includes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Georgia, Jordan, Armenia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, the USA – with the exception of airports in the states of Illinois and New York. There are no countries from the EU, the European Economic Area and the Schengen area on the list.
The inclusion of the UK into the regulation is related to the detection of a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the UK. British Health Minister Matt Hancock said that over 6,000 infections were reported with the new variety, mainly in the south and south-east of England. The new variant spreads faster than the hitherto known variety, but does not appear to be more severe.