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France introduced a brief ban on all journey and accompanied freight on Sunday evening, a possible catastrophe for UK exporters who rely on commerce with Europe. The border closure exacerbated pre-Christmas delays, with vans backed up from the port of Dover within the southeast of England, a key crossing level for hauliers.
Worse, the transfer has sparked fear that European exporters could be reluctant to ship items to the UK, for worry of not having the ability to return. The timing of the restrictions, simply days earlier than Christmas and the tip of the Brexit transition interval, raised considerations about meals and medication shortages within the UK at a vital time.
Johnson sought to allay these considerations in a televised press convention on Monday, telling Britons that “the vast majority of food and medicine supplies are coming and going as normal.”
His transport secretary, Grant Shapps, added that 170 lorries have been nonetheless caught on the motorways round Dover, with extra in a holding space, however mentioned that quantity had been lowered from over 500 on Sunday evening.
It got here after Kent Police have been compelled to shut sections of England’s M20 motorway to “avoid gridlock” within the space surrounding the Eurotunnel. Operation Stack — a contingency plan that permits a part of the freeway to be allotted to parked vans — has been put in place.
France mentioned it was working to usher in a European-wide well being protocol that may permit freight to start out flowing once more.
“In the next few hours, at the European level, we are going to put in place a solid health protocol so that flows from the United Kingdom can resume,” Secretary of State for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari tweeted Monday. “Our priority is to protect our nationals and our citizens,” he added.
Johnson mentioned he had spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday and insisted that the chance of transmission from a solitary truck driver was low.
Representatives of the street haulage business referred to as on the UK authorities to deploy speedy testing for truck drivers to revive confidence within the French authorities that they’re Covid-free.
“Right now there will be concern around a backup if this persists for longer than 48 hours because eventually there will be a position where the delays on the exit journey will be quite substantial,” mentioned Alex Veitch, common coverage supervisor for Logistics UK, on BBC Radio 4.
British supermarkets mentioned that warehouses have been effectively stocked at current. Sainsbury’s warned that shortages of perishable items might begin to seem within the coming days, if the scenario shouldn’t be resolved rapidly. A Sainsbury’s spokesperson informed the PA Media information company: “All products for the Great British Christmas lunch are already in the country and we have plenty of these. If nothing changes, we will start to see gaps over the coming days on lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflowers, broccoli and citrus fruit — all of which are imported from the continent at this time of year.”
Travel restrictions
By Monday, dozens of nations throughout Europe, the Middle East and the Americas had introduced journey bans for the UK. Others, such as Greece and Spain, have imposed restrictions that require vacationers arriving from Britain to bear coronavirus checks or quarantine.
In South America, Argentina, Chile and Colombia have all suspended direct flights to and from the UK, and El Salvador has banned anybody getting into the nation from Britain.
Hong Kong grew to become the primary place in Asia to limit British vacationers on Monday, halting all passenger flights from the UK from Tuesday and banning all passengers who stayed within the UK for greater than two hours previously 14 days from arriving within the metropolis.
In the Middle East, flights from the UK have been barred in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel.
And throughout Europe, nations have closed their borders to vacationers from UK, together with the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, Sweden, Luxembourg, the Republic of Ireland, Estonia and the Czech Republic.
On Monday, Anthony Fauci informed CNN that he would advise in opposition to further restrictions on UK journey if the matter arises in a process power meeting deliberate for later within the day. The US should “without a doubt keep an eye on it,” Fauci mentioned, however he warned that “we don’t want to overreact.”
Monday’s emergency meeting of UK authorities officers was anticipated to focus on the worldwide restrictions, and “in particular the steady flow of freight into and out of the UK,” the Prime Minister’s spokesperson informed CNN. “Further meetings are happening this evening and tomorrow morning to ensure robust plans are in place,” the spokesperson added.
UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tried to ease fears on disruption to meals provides, saying the Eurotunnel from Dover to Calais solely accounts for about 20% of products stepping into and overseas.
“It’s not the mainstay, most goods come in and out in unaccompanied containers and those will continue to flow,” he mentioned.
The journey restrictions adopted the announcement by the British authorities on Saturday that the new coronavirus variant appeared to unfold extra rapidly.
In a unexpectedly referred to as press convention Saturday, Johnson mentioned the new variant appeared to “be up to 70% more transmissible,” and was accountable for a major rise in circumstances in London and southeastern England. Those areas have been positioned beneath heightened restrictions.
The harder lockdown was the most recent disruption to a vacation interval overshadowed by the pandemic. Governments from Asia to Europe have tightened social-distancing guidelines and reintroduced lockdown measures to counter a surge in Covid-19 circumstances. The discovery of the new variant has deepened considerations main restrictions will now proceed lengthy into the new yr.
Outside of the UK, the new variant has already been recognized in Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia.
Australian well being authorities mentioned two circumstances of the variant had been present in managed quarantine in Sydney, whereas Italy’s Health Ministry reported Sunday {that a} affected person had been contaminated with the variant and positioned beneath isolation in Rome.
All viruses mutate over time and new variants are a typical emergence, together with for the novel coronavirus. An identical variant to the one recognized within the UK has additionally been recognized in South Africa, the place scientists say it’s spreading rapidly alongside coastal areas of the nation.
What do we all know in regards to the new variant?
Johnson revealed on Monday that greater than 500,000 British folks had obtained the primary dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, which the UK was the primary nation to approve.
His medical advisers warned that the new variant of the virus might trigger a rise in infections within the coming weeks.
But England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance cautioned that there was no proof to recommend that the new variant is extra lethal, or would neutralize the effectiveness of the newly permitted vaccines. However, a extra simply unfold virus might lead to extra circumstances, which in flip might result in extra hospitalizations and doubtlessly extra deaths. Even with a vaccine, this might make controlling the virus’s unfold far much less manageable.
Whitty warned Saturday that the new UK variant “can spread more quickly” and was accountable for 60% of new infections within the capital, which have practically doubled within the final week alone.
In Monday’s briefing, Vallance added that he anticipated the unfold of the new variant would enhance after Christmas.
“Given that we’re entering a period of inevitable mixing, I think there will be some increases in numbers over the next few weeks,” he mentioned, including that native restrictions are more likely to be tightened slightly than eased within the new yr.
The prediction comes regardless of Johnson’s last-minute determination on Saturday to cancel Christmas plans for thousands and thousands of Brits, imposing harder restrictions after insisting for weeks that they might plan to see family for the vacations.
Backwards tracing utilizing genetic proof suggests the new UK variant emerged in September after which circulated at very low ranges within the inhabitants till mid-November, based on Public Health England (PHE).
“The increase in cases linked to the new variant first came to light in late November when PHE was investigating why infection rates in Kent were not falling despite national restrictions. We then discovered a cluster linked to this variant spreading rapidly into London and Essex,” the company mentioned.
Multiple specialists have prompt that this new variant might have been amplified due to a superspreader occasion; it may very well be the mutation one way or the other makes it unfold extra simply with out inflicting extra critical sickness; or it might have been by probability.
Scientists at EPH have but to establish the precise mechanism for the possible enhance in transmission, although usually a mutation within the spike protein, the a part of the virus that attaches itself to host cells, can enhance its transmissibility, the company mentioned.
CNN’s Amy Woodyatt, Amy Cassidy, Fanny Wang and Stephanie Halasz contributed reporting
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