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All travel is blocked to and from the UK by a number of countries.
On Saturday, UK authorities reported a new, more infectious, strain of covid-19, and introduced stricter lockdown measures: all non-essential stores closed, and the earlier relaxing of household gatherings for Christmas reversed. The new measures may have to remain for months, admitted health secretary Matt Hancock. Chaotic scenes on the main train stations in London followed, with people trying to leave for the countryside.
On Sunday, a slew of countries -- the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Finland, Austria, France, Italy, Norway, Ireland, Bulgaria, Canada, Switzerland, India, Poland, Turkey and Hong Kong -- banned all travel from the UK. Germany also stopped all travel from South Africa, by midnight. Passengers from both countries, arriving by plane on Sunday, were stopped, tested and had to spend the night on field beds in Hannover.
France went further and also banned all truck transport from the UK for 48 hours, after which traffic will be allowed through again, provided drivers can show a covid-19 negative test. As the route Calais (FR) to Dover (UK) is a main supply artery for the UK, with more than 10,000 trucks crossing daily, this has further added to the enormous logjam in UK harbours. That logjam started 2-3 weeks ago, due to Brexit-related stockpiling by UK supermarket stores.
The expectation is that Britain will shortly face a serious supply problem, due to a combination of people stockpiling and EU based transport companies refusing to provide supply trucks, likely to be stuck for days, maybe even weeks -- with no Brexit deal in sight -- on return from the UK.
The European Union will be holding an emergency coordination meeting this noon.
The new covid-19 variant, named B.1.1.7, was first discovered in Kent, UK, on September 20. Defined by a novel set of spike mutations, it was responsible for 28 per cent of infections in London by early November, and 62 per cent in the week ending December 9.
Computer modelling suggests that it is 70 per cent more transmissible than other Sars-Cov-2 strains circulating in the UK and raises the R value — the average number of people to whom someone with Covid-19 passes the infection — by 0.4. European countries are already struggling to keep the R rate for covid-19 at or below 0.9 -- so an increase of this magnitude will make the pandemic far harder to control.
Regular Covid-19 tests do not detect viral mutations. Variants can only be identified through a readout of all 30,000 letters of genetic code in each Sars-Cov-2 sample using specialised sequencing machines. According to a paper released on Saturday, labs have sequenced 1,623 Sars-Cov-2 viral genomes showing the B.1.1.7 variant.
One of the questions is, hence, why it took so long for the UK government to notify other countries, and why they relaxed gathering restrictions just last week. The only thing left for the EU is a race against the clock to limit the spreading of the new strain: the Netherlands already found an infection, as did Austria. In Belgium, 5 infections have been found.
A leading scientific expert there stated that it is highly likely the new variant is present in quite a few countries -- and that England not necessarily may be the place with the most B.1.1.7 infections. Research in the UK is simply more extensive and of the highest quality, while some other countries don't really look hard, or even at all, for Sars-CoV-2 variants.
The other strain now causing concern -- the reason for the German travel ban for South Africa -- is called 501.V2. Between 80 - 90 percent of all covid viruses found in the last 2 months in South Africa were 501.V2. Like B.1.1.7, it is causing a much higher viral load in infected patients. It is also being reported in the UK and Australia.
In related news, Denmark is going to excavate, then burn, the bodies of over 4 million minks, culled a couple of months ago when a new covid-19 variant, Y453F, was discovered in them. That variant showed mutations which potentially, if passed onto human covid-19 viruses, could have reduced the effectiveness of vaccines. The operation will only start in 6 months, with Danish authorities claiming there would be no further contamination risk after this period.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 21 2020, @03:32PM (2 children)
Essential commodities shouldn't really be hit too hard. Instead of truck drivers from the continent coming to the UK and making deliveries, they re-discover drop and hook.
Guy from the continent brings the trailer full of food to England, and drops it. Driver from the UK hooks up to it, and makes delivery. Guy from the continent takes an empty trailer back to the continent to be filled for the next run.
There's no real reason for the grocery store shelves to be empty.
Despite sensational headlines from China, I don't think the COVIDS are spread by people handling either dry goods or refrigerated products. Meats seem to be cause for concern, but I've not even read of people being infected by way of eating meat products.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Monday December 21 2020, @04:45PM (1 child)
What you say makes sense, provided there are enough trucks available, on the UK side. I suspect though, from casual observation and newspaper articles, that the large majority of truck drivers are Eastern Europeans, and the (very) large majority of international trucking companies are from the Continent.
Then there is the whole fresh food stuffs thing -- lots of meats, fresh veggies, cheese, and quite a bit of potatoes, coming from the Continent too -- organised by the just-in-time mechanism.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Tuesday December 22 2020, @12:09AM
Plus all the fish that was heading to the EU that won't be fresh after 3 days sitting on the side of the road.'
Also, dropping a trailer takes longer than roll on/roll off. With up to 10,000 trucks a day passing through Dover, even one minute extra per truck will kill throughput. And this is on top of permit checks and paperwork verification and inspections required after the Brexit transition period expires in 10 days.
Welcome to Brexitstan, free of the EU, and in free fall.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 21 2020, @07:31PM (1 child)
Travel between the US and UK is still available.
In fact, folks are singing the praises [thehill.com] of cross-Atlantic travel.
And why shouldn't we? The US is the bestest of the best [nytimes.com] with respect to the Coronavirus!
We're number one! USA! USA! USA!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 21 2020, @07:39PM
New US tourism slogans:
Come for the government dysfunction, stay for the COVID-19 (in quarantine)
Broadway may be closed, but our hospitals are standing room only!
Bring a friend, they may be needed to identify your corpse
(Score: 2) by quietus on Monday December 21 2020, @08:20PM (1 child)
The EU coordination meeting didn't deliver results yet. Talks will continue tomorrow.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 21 2020, @08:30PM
Anyone is expecting any different result than upping the scare?
Politicians have not mutated, do not expect a change in their pathogenicity. As long as masses do not revolt, screws will be tightened further.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 21 2020, @08:27PM
How convenient that Brexit talks are at a critical stage right now.
But the blame must be put on BoJo's government. Chaos. That's all they're good for.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 21 2020, @09:44PM (1 child)
Saturday's COG Report [cogconsortium.uk]
The 70% figure comes from Imperial College but it's worth pointing out that the South East and London were under less severe restrictions than Northern England but Wales where this variant is now running rampant [walesonline.co.uk] has basically been under lockdown since October 23 - 3,125 deaths today [coronaviruscymru.wales] from a country of just over 3MM population.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 21 2020, @11:57PM
^ Whoops.
Comment above was rapidly edited together from a longer comment ("but", "but") due to interruption. 2,563 new cases and 10 deaths today with 3,125 deaths total from a country of just over 3 Million.
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Tuesday December 22 2020, @12:17AM (7 children)
B.1.1.7 is called VUI 202012/01 around here and, conclusively, nicknamed covid-20.
Also, it is suspected to be a product of Porton Down DSTL labs but that information is obviously unverifiable.
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 22 2020, @02:11AM
Suspected by whom? The South African variant 501.V2 has the same N501Y Receptor Binding Domain mutation as the UK B.1.17 variant and it appears to be convergent. The isolates have a different genomic linage, they evolved independently and both became prominent via natural selection; supporting the claim this specific mutation makes the virus more transmissible.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday December 22 2020, @12:49PM (5 children)
[Citation needed], chuuni-kun.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Tuesday December 22 2020, @03:37PM (4 children)
I am not your nanny, teikoku-shojo.
Today, free press here (defined by free as in "independent, not liberal") repeats not only the Southampton - Porton Down labs connection theory but also describes a war-like chaos in London evacuation in progress, naming St.Pancras rail station panic comparable to Saigon.
That's quite an impression. Do you remember Saigon?
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 22 2020, @06:05PM
Porton Down are testing the vaccines against the new variant, there is your "connection".
(Score: 5, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday December 23 2020, @12:18AM (2 children)
I'm a little young for Saigon. Do *you* remember Saigon? Because if you do your behavior on this site just went from "pitiful late 20-something in his mom's basement" to "deranged 60-something in a van down by the river."
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Thursday December 24 2020, @09:43AM (1 child)
Yes, I do remember Saigon. And how it later passed into schoolbooks as a great victory over Imperialism. Good old times... Not as much glorious for those Imperialists, though.
I am flattered with that 'deranged 60-something in a van down the river', really. Because, punk is not dead saying fits me.
But, we are on the Net. You can't ever determine if actual me is a collective, ranging from a crazy senile grandfather to freaky teeny grandson, including a wise old cat dreaming on a keyboard time to time. At least the dog is illiterate.
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: 1, Troll) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday December 24 2020, @01:31PM
It's pretty clear you're one single person with a seriously bad case of chuunibyou, and for someone as old as you that's pathetic.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...