World News – US – Shaken by the new strain of coronavirus, the world is closing the door on Britain

DOVER, England (Reuters) – A number of countries closed their borders with the UK on Monday over fears that a highly infectious new strain of coronavirus could emerge, adding to global panic, causing travel chaos and escalating the prospect of food shortages in Britain days before the brink of the Brexit cliff

India, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Jordan and Hong Kong suspended travel for the British after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that a mutant variant of the virus that is up to 70% more transmissible has been identified in the country was Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman have completely closed their borders

Several other nations have suspended travel from the UK, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Israel, and Canada – although scientists said the tribe may already be in countries with less advanced detection methods than the United States States circulates Kingdom

The discovery of the new strain came just months before the expected spread of vaccines, which caused new panic in a pandemic that killed around 1, 7 million people worldwide and more than 67000 in the UK

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urged the US. Government To Take Action To Prevent New Tribe From Invading Country Affected By COVID-19 With Nearly 318000 deaths worst hit

“It is high time that the federal government acted quickly, because today this variant gets on a plane and lands in JFK She only needs one person, “he said

US. Deputy Health Secretary Brett Giroir said nothing had been decided on a travel ban as the pandemic there accelerated, Congress was ready to vote on a $ 900 billion COVID-19 stimulus package after months of inactivity >

EU officials met on video to coordinate their response to the new strain of coronavirus The block is well on its way to starting COVID-19 vaccinations within a week after the Medicines Agency stopped using it on Monday of a shot approved by Pfizer and BioNTech

France has closed its border to the arrival of people and trucks from Great Britain and has closed one of the main trade routes with mainland Europe

As families and truckers tried to bypass travel bans to get home in time for Christmas, UK supermarket chain Sainsbury said that if transport links weren’t quickly restored, bottlenecks would arise within days

“If nothing changes we will see gaps in lettuce, some lettuce leaves, cauliflower, broccoli and citrus fruits in the coming days, all of which are imported from the continent at this time of year,” Sainsbury said

The French FNTR Road Transport Association said: “No driver wants to deliver to the UK now, so the UK freight supply will dry up”

European stocks plummeted, with travel and leisure stocks taking the brunt of the pain; British Airways IAG fell nearly 9%, easyJet 7% and Air France KLM 4%

US. Delta Air Lines suffered as well: American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines lost 5% to 7% in premarket trade

The British pound was down 25% against the dollar and was on its way to its biggest one-day decline since March, while the two-year UK Treasury bond yield hit record lows

“Sick Man of Europe,” said the Daily Mirror newspaper on its front page alongside a picture of Johnson, while the Sun newspaper said “French show no merci”

Johnson canceled Christmas plans for millions of Britons on Saturday because of the contagious strain of the coronavirus, although there was no evidence that it was either more deadly or caused more serious illness

The new variant and restrictions in the UK exacerbate the chaos as the country prepares to leave the European Union for good, possibly without a trade deal, when the Brexit transition period at 2300 GMT on Dec. 31

The new variety, which scientists said was 40 to 70% more transmissible, has quickly become the dominant variety in parts of southern England, including London

However, experts stressed that there is no evidence that vaccines, including the UK-used Pfizer-BioNTech, would not protect against this variant

Cases of the new strain have also been found in a few other countries, including Italy and the Netherlands

According to Australia, two people who traveled from the United Kingdom to New South Wales, the most populous state, carry the mutated virus Dozens of domestic flights have been canceled while New South Wales has more than 250000 people imprisoned

“Great Britain is simply the country where these mutations are most common because they are more likely to look for them. There are countries that do little or no search,” said Marc Van Ranst, virologist at the Rega Institute for Medical Research in Belgium, opposite the Belgian broadcaster VRT

“I think we will find in the coming days that many other countries will find it”

The new strain was identified at a time when COVID-19 cases have soared in several Asian countries where the pandemic had previously occurred, imposing severe restrictions

South Korea, in which the number of new COVID-19 cases rose to over 1 several times in the past week000 per day has risen, reviewed the measures for flights from the UK and tested twice the flights arriving from there before they were released from quarantine

Thailand extended movement restrictions, saying it was testing tens of thousands of people after its worst outbreak yet

Additional coverage by Toby Melville, James Davey and Kate Kelland in London, Laurence Frost in Paris, Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, Sayantani Ghosh in Singapore, Frank McGurty in New York, Josh Smith and Sangmi Cha in Seoul, Renju Jose in Sydney , Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Mumbai and Farah Master in Hong Kong; Letters from Guy Faulconbridge and Pravin Char; Editing by Alison Williams

All offers were delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a full list of exchanges and delays, see

UK Coronavirus