Emergency meeting in Great Britain – EU

British Prime Minister Boris JohnsonBoris Johnson is a British politician, born on June 19, 1964 in New York. His paternal great-grandfather is calls an emergency meeting this morning to discuss the status of a country’s international air services in light of a wave of flight bans to and from the UK, announced by many countries to stop the spread of the new strain of coronavirus , which has spread widely. the country, Reuters reported, citing a spokeswoman for the prime minister.

“The prime minister will chair the COBRA emergency response group meeting … Additional meetings are currently taking place on the issue, which will continue tomorrow in order to prepare robust response plans,” the spokeswoman said.

The British government has announced even stricter restrictions in London and southern England to limit the spread of the new strain of coronavirus.

Dozens of countries, including Europeans, have already announced that they will stop all flights to and from the UK, and some will not accept arrivals by other means of transport.

After France banned the arrival of all air, sea and rail passengers through the Channel Tunnel for 48 hours last night, the British authorities closed the Dover ferry terminal on the English Channel, where they already they had begun to accumulate huge queues of cars and passengers. to cross the water barrier to the mainland.

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These bans, introduced by many countries, come at a particularly difficult time for many British companies trying to accumulate reserves in the last days before the transition period for leaving the country from the European Union, and the new customs duties come into force January 1st. rules and fees. Shortly before the closure, Dover Port Chief Doug Bannister told Reuters that this month Europe’s largest ferry port had recorded record volumes of freight transported. This flow is now being abruptly cut off indefinitely.

Earlier today, the British Public Health Service issued a statement saying that the mutated variant of the coronavirus was identified in the country in September, but began to spread widely in mid-November.

The document says the new option has been identified after incidence rates in the county of Kent, in the south-east of England, did not decline, despite the introduction of strict quarantine measures. The same mutant was later observed to be spreading to London and Essex.

British experts emphasize that so far they have not found data indicating a higher mortality from the new mutation compared to the original version of the virus. However, at the same time, in areas where it is detected, the coronavirus spreads faster.

In Italy, there is a patient with the new strain of COVD-19, which is found in the UK.

Doctors also note that the Pfizer and Biontech vaccine, which is already being used in the UK, also protects against the new version of the coronavirus. “As of now, there is no reason to say that this vaccine will not protect people from the new strain,” the statement said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also said that so far no effect of the new mutation of the virus on its lethality has been observed. This was said yesterday on the French television channel BFM Sylvie Brian, director of the WHO department of pandemics and epidemics.

“Viruses are changing and there is nothing surprising about what is happening now. More research is needed to determine exactly whether the effects of the virus on humans are changing. So far, we have not seen any change in mortality caused by the virus. “. , she said.

Brian also said that the new strain of the virus “is unlikely to affect the way vaccines work.”

According to her, as “the virus has an animal origin, in the course of its mutation it gradually adapts to the human body … Therefore, with each new mutation discovered, it is convenient to determine what new characteristics it acquires, if it is a change greater or just a simple evolution. “

“There should be no panic,” the WHO expert continued, “science, in general, knows that the more times each virus is transmitted, the more likely it is to be modified.”

He expressed the opinion that the measures taken in Great Britain will slow down the spread of the new strain and will not accelerate in the period before the mass vaccination of the population.