LONDON – Several European countries have banned flights from the UK over fears of a new coronavirus variant, forcing millions in Britain to cancel their Christmas plans.
Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Italy all announced travel bans to the UK. Other possible circumstances follow as scientists warn that stress spreads faster than it can handle.
As UK levels of infection rise rapidly, British Prime Minister Boris Jones told a news conference on Saturday that London and the southeast of the UK would be placed under strict lockdown rules, known as “tires as”.
As a result, nonsensical shops, gyms, cinemas, hairdressers and bowling alleys will be forced to close for two weeks, while people will be barred from meeting each other in a public place outside the home.
The “bubble” policy – allowing as many as three homes to meet during the holiday in parts of the country that are not under the Tier 4 ban – will be severely curtailed and will only apply on Christmas Day, Johns said.
Virus mutation
UK health officials first identified a new variable, which British scientists call “VUI-202012/01” in mid-September, the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 technical lead, Maria van Kerkov, told the BBC on Sunday.
Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading in the UK, told NBC News that mutations in the virus are “very common”.
“When they bring an infection, they come inside our cells and take over the cell to make more copies of themselves for reproduction and every time they do that a new set of genetic material was created for each new virus,” he added. That new strain is “definitely fitter” than its predecessor.
England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty warned in a statement on Saturday that it was believed to be spreading more quickly.
But he said there is no evidence yet to suggest that the new strain is more powerful in terms of serious illness or loss of life.
Vaccine effectiveness
Sir Patrick Vallens, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, said in a news briefing on Saturday: “Our working assumption for all scientists is that the response to the virus should be adequate.”
But Ravindra Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at Cambridge University, said he was concerned that the virus was on its way to becoming resistant to one type of vaccine.
“While it may not be really resistant, it won’t take that many changes to get there,” he told NBC News.
However, Clark said different versions of the flu vaccine are needed every year, and did not see why it is not for coronavirus.
Preventing the spread
New variants have yet to be identified in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia, Van Kerkov said.
“The longer the virus spreads, the more chances it has to change, so we need to do everything we can right now to stop the spread. Reducing its spread will make it less likely to change, ”he said.
Further sequencing that can be done will help determine if this variant moves elsewhere, she added.
Gupta said new tensions in the US and other countries around the world should be a cause for concern. Warning that the virus could re-emerge, he said, “people need to increase their surveillance.”
The clinical virologist at the University of Leicester in the UK, Dr. A strict new lockdown ban was a “necessary step” to keep the virus under control, Julian Tang said in a statement. But he warned that the infection could spread even after a few hours on Christmas day.
Officials are therefore urging people at lower levels across England to still maintain as much social distance as possible.
Political consequences
While scientists have praised Johnson for increasing sanctions, his political rivals have accused him of “Heartbreak“For millions of families because of last minute sanctions.
Opposition Labor leader Sir Kerr Starmer Johnson called on people to apologize for how the lockdown was handled.
“At the center of the problem here are prime ministers who do not want to be unusual and therefore will not make the necessary decisions until they are pressured at eleven o’clock.” News conference.
