(REUTERS): Several countries have closed their borders to Britain today (Monday) over fears of a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, causing travel chaos and raising the prospect of UK food shortages days before the Brexit cliff edge.
India, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Jordan and Hong Kong suspended travel for Britons after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that a mutated variant of the virus, up to 70 percent more transmissible, had been identified in the country.
Several other nations have suspended travel including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Israel and Canada. Although scientists said the strain may already be circulating in countries with less advanced detection methods than the United Kingdom.
The discovery of the new strain, just months before vaccines are expected to be widely available, sowed fresh panic in a pandemic. Meanwhile, two travellers from the United Kingdom to Australia’s New South Wales state were found carrying the mutated variant of the virus.
As families and truck drivers tried to navigate the travel bans to get back home in time for Christmas, British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s said shortages would start to appear within days if transport ties were not quickly restored.
Cases of the new strain have also been detected in some other countries, including Italy and the Netherlands. On Sunday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock added to the alarm when he said “the new variant is out of control.”
Beyond Europe, Israel also said it was banning flights from Britain, Denmark and South Africa because those were the countries where the mutation is found. India suspended all flights from the UK from midnight until December 31, saying that anyone arriving from Britain on transit flights would be also tested.
The World Health Organisation tweeted late on Saturday that it was “in close contact with UK officials on the new #COVID19 virus variant” and promised to update governments and the public as more is learned.
