Hungary to tighten controls on air travel from seven African countries

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary will impose restrictions on travellers from Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, the government said on Saturday after a new coronavirus variant was detected in South Africa.

Hungary said it was joining a European Union move to curb air travel from southern Africa and that its measures would be published in a government decree later in the day.

On Friday, all 27 EU member states “agreed on the need to activate the emergency brake & impose temporary restrictions on all travel into EU from southern Africa”, the current Slovenian presidency of the EU said on Twitter.

(Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Mark Heinrich)