By Reuters Staff

       1 Min Read

       FILE PHOTO: Passengers wearing protective face masks walk at Fiumicino Airport on the day EU governments agreed a "safe list" of 14 countries for which they will allow non-essential travel starting from July, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Rome, Italy, June 30, 2020. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

       BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union states have agreed to suspend temporarily travel to southern Africa after the detection of a new COVID-19 variant, the presidency of the EU said on Friday.

       A committee of health experts from all 27 EU states “agreed on the need to activate the #emergency break & impose temporary restriction on all travel into EU from southern Africa,” the Slovenian presidency of the EU said on Twitter.

       An EU source said the restrictions would apply to South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

       (This story refiles to remove word ‘due’ from headline)

       Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio and Gabriela Baczynska; editing by Philip Blenkinsop

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