Italy says will suspend flights from UK over virus variant

In this file photo, a cyclist rides past the Colosseum monument which reopens to the public on June 1, 2020, in Rome. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP FILE)

ROME — Italy is to join other European countries in imposing a ban on passenger flights from Britain, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Sunday, as the British government warned that a potent new strain of the virus was “out of control.”

“The United Kingdom has issued an alert concerning a new strain of Covid-19,” Di Maio wrote on his Facebook account.

“As the government, our duty is to protect Italians and for this reason… we will sign, with the health minister, a decree suspending flights to and from Britain,” he said, without specifying when the measure would come into effect.