Cut off: Britain hit with travel bans over new virus strain

LONDON (AP):

Trucks waiting to get out of Britain backed up for miles and people were left stranded at airports on Monday as countries around the world slapped tough travel restrictions on the UK because of a new and seemingly more contagious strain of the coronavirus in England.

A growing number of countries barred flights from Britain, while France banned British trucks for 48 hours while the new variant is assessed.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the strain is “out of control” around London and southeastern England, though experts have said it is not clear whether it is more lethal, and they expressed confidence that the vaccines now being rolled out would still be effective against it.

There were rising hopes that France would soon allow traffic to flow again, if truck drivers took coronavirus tests on arrival.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s (EU) drug regulatory agency recommended use of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, setting the stage for the first COVID-19 shots across the 27-nation bloc. The vaccine is already being dispensed in Britain and the US.

The EU was expected to give final approval to the recommendation within hours. Authorities in Germany and several other European countries said they hope to begin vaccinating people on December 27.

The virus is blamed for 1.7 million deaths worldwide, including about 68,000 in Britain, the second-highest death toll in Europe, behind Italy’s 69,000.

While the French ban does not prevent trucks from heading for Britain, the move stoked worries about shortages at a time of year when Britain produces very little of its food and relies heavily on produce delivered from Europe by truck. In a sign of the government’s concern, Prime Minister Boris Johnson called a meeting of the government’s emergency committee.

The ban caused chaos in Kent, the southeastern English county that is home to many of Britain’s English Channel ports. The government urged against travel to the county, but trucks snaked along the shoulders of the main highways to the ports anyway.

Around 10,000 trucks pass through Britain’s port of Dover every day, accounting for about 20 per cent of the country’s trade in goods. British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said France’s ban was “slightly surprising”, but insisted that the UK public won’t notice any shortages “for the most part”.

Many trucks that deliver cargo from the UK to the continent return laden with goods for Britain’s use. The fear is that a drop in the number of trucks crossing over to the continent could lead to shortages in the UK. Also, some drivers or their employers might decide against entering Britain for fear they would not be able to get back home.

Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s warned that some products, such as lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and citrus fruits, could soon be in short supply if the crisis is not resolved in the coming days.

France’s Minister of Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari indicated that a solution was coming. In a tweet, he said that “in the coming hours, at a European level, we will put a solid health protocol in place so that the flow from the United Kingdom can resume”.

And a croaky-voiced French President Emmanuel Macron, who is working from the Elysee Palace as he recovers from COVID-19, told a Cabinet meeting by video: “We are looking at systematic testing upon arrival.”

Canada, India, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Poland were among the countries that barred flights from Britain.

In the United States, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has been calling on the US to halt flights as well, said that he asked airlines flying into his state from the UK to make all passengers take a coronavirus test before boarding, and that at least one carrier, British Airways, agreed to do so.