Belgium bans non-essential foreign trips from Wednesday

Belgium will ban non-essential trips out of the country from Wednesday in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19 infections, especially highly contagious variants, a government official said. The official spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity ahead of a media conference by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who was to present details of the ban. The information confirmed reports in Belgian media that police would enforce the travel ban at land, sea and air borders to ensure travellers were making trips for essential reasons only, such as for unavoidable work commitments. Violators would face fines.  The prohibition, agreed in a meeting of Belgian federal and regional governments, will run from Wednesday to March 1. The announcement comes a day after an EU summit by videoconference during which European leaders decided against barring travel across the European Union's internal borders. They instead "strongly discouraged" non-essential intra-EU trips, and warned they might toughen that line in days ahead if the worrying virus variants took hold. The EU wants to avoid a repeat of the height of the pandemic's first wave in March last year when several member states panicked and...