U.K. Travel Halted As Nations Assess New Coronavirus Pressure : Coronavirus Updates : NPR

Up to date 2:30 p.m. ET

British Key Minister Boris Johnson Monday attempted to reassure skittish European neighbors that his government experienced the risk of a new strain of the coronavirus less than manage.

In a push conference at No. 10 Downing St., Johnson also claimed he was in talks with France, one particular of numerous nations that have banned entry from the U.K. given that the weekend, creating chaos for travelers and cargo shipments.

Johnson stated he and French President Emmanuel Macron experienced “a extremely very good get in touch with” earlier Monday, introducing that both leaders want to find a way to resume freight website traffic in between the two nations.

“It was an fantastic dialogue with the French president,” Johnson claimed. “He stressed he was eager … to kind it out in the next handful of hrs if we can.”

His responses arrive as a expanding amount of nations are barring tourists from the United Kingdom as a way to block preemptively the unfold of a new strain of the coronavirus sweeping by means of southeast England.

U.K. officers alert the new variant of the virus could be as large as 70% more contagious than the different strains presently circulating. Even so, you can find no proof so considerably suggesting the new variant is extra lethal.

France declared it was suspending all travel from that nation for 48 several hours beginning at midnight Sunday.

The new constraints on U.K. vacation have crippled freight transportation across the English Channel. Vans loaded with cargo were being backed up for miles hoping to get into and out of Britain, though numerous tourists have been still left stranded at airports and coach stations across Europe.

Nations around the world in Europe, which include Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, declared bans on vacationers from the United Kingdom.

Canada also claimed it was suspending flights from the U.K. for a 72-hour interval, though Israel introduced the entry of non-Israeli citizens from the U.K. has been prohibited “which include people who have by now been issued permits.”

“We in the U.K. fully understand the anxieties of our mates about COVID, their anxieties about the new variant,” Johnson stated. “But it can be also true that we feel the pitfalls of transmission by a solitary driver, sitting on your own … are genuinely really minimal.”

NPR’s Frank Langfitt, reporting from London on Monday, explained the island nation’s predicament on NPR’s Morning Version this way: “It feels a great deal extra isolated than it did just a couple times back right here on the island of Good Britain.”

He also noted that the Brexit transition interval, which finishes Dec. 31, only complicates issues.

“The Eurotunnel, which also runs underneath the channel, is also closed. It seems to be a precautionary measure for about 48 several hours,” Langfitt explained. “You will find a great deal of worry close to the Xmas time. We’ve previously found backups at the Port of Dover 20 miles extensive. And what is actually been going on is persons are attempting to get freight throughout the channel just before the deadline of the Brexit changeover interval, which is going to end on New Year’s Eve.”

The Involved Press described there are fears the vacation restrictions could result in foods shortages if they are not eased in the in the vicinity of long run.

For his portion Johnson tried to quell individuals concerns. He pointed out that the journey ban at the Port of Dover only applied to people driving freight trucks and not to shipping containers, which Johnson explained accounted for approximately 20% of the quantity of products at the port.

“Which indicates the wide majority of foodstuff, medications and other supplies are coming and likely as regular,” Johnson claimed.

All of this arrives on the similar day the European Medicines Agency, adopted inside of several hours by the European Fee, licensed the use of the COVID-19 vaccine jointly formulated by BioNTech and Pfizer. The U.K. has already authorized the vaccine’s use.

Before on Monday, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, France’s minister delegate for transportation, claimed in a tweet it was his hope “a reliable wellbeing protocol” could be established so movement could recommence.

“In the subsequent several hrs, at European level, we’re going to create a reliable wellbeing protocol to make sure that motion from the U.K. can resume. Our precedence: to safeguard our nationals and our fellow citizens,” Djebbari explained.

The BBC, which claimed a lot more than 40 nations have imposed some type of restriction on the U.K., included there is also a push in Brussels, the place the European Union is headquartered, for a extra coordinated response to the new variant of the virus and how numerous of the nations respond to it.

The British broadcaster famous that when the coronavirus 1st commenced to spread before this 12 months, a number of EU member states enacted an “just about every-country-for-by itself” model, which it explained put strains on the overall notion of European cooperation.

Although EU nations take into consideration how to react to the newest crisis in the coronavirus pandemic, the British federal government put a lot of elements of the place into what is acknowledged as a “Tier 4” lockdown above the weekend.

Less than those people limits, British officials urge that all those below Tier 4 ought to refrain from interacting with everyone outdoors their instant family all through the Christmas vacation.

In a bit of excellent news on the vaccine front, Johnson claimed far more than fifty percent a million U.K. citizens experienced received their very first dosage of the COVID-19 vaccine.