World isolates UK; Australia, Italy discover patients with new virus strain

Experts caution against panicking, say vaccine shall prevent new strain of virus which isn't deadlier

A slew of countries closed their borders to Britain on Monday over fears of a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, heightening global panic, causing travel chaos and raising the prospect of UK food shortages days before the Brexit cliff edge.

 

India, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Jordan and Hong Kong suspended travel for Britons after Boris Johnson warned that a mutated variant of the virus, up to 70 per cent more transmissible, had been identified in the country. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman closed their borders completely.

 

Several other nations have suspended travel from Britain including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Israel and Canada — although scientists said the strain may already be circulating in countries with less advanced detection methods than the UK. Italy and Australia reported finding the new strain of virus in their own countries.  The discovery of the new strain, just months before vaccines are expected to be widely available, sowed fresh panic in a pandemic that has killed about 1.7 million people worldwide and more than 67,000 in Britain.Australia said two people who travelled from the United Kingdom to New South Wales state were found to be carrying the mutated virus.

 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urged the U.S. government to take steps to prevent the new strain entering the country, which has been worst hit by Covid-19 with almost 318,000 deaths.

 

Vaccines should work against new strain, say ministers

 

French Health Minister Olivier Veran told Europe 1 radio on Monday that current Covid-19 vaccines should work against a new strain of the virus, recently found in the United Kingdom.

 

“In theory, there is no reason to think that the vaccine should not be effective,”  Veran said. Indian-American physician Vivek Murthy, Joe Biden’s pick for Surgeon General, has said there is no evidence to suggest that a new and more contagious virus variant reported in the UK is any deadlier.

 

Biden to be vaccinated

 

US President-elect Joe Biden plans to publicly receive a Covid-19 vaccine injection on Monday in an effort to

 

boost confidence in its safety ahead of its wide distribution next year.