“This new variant is highly concerning, because it is yet more transmissible, and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant that has been discovered in the UK,” Mr Hancock said, referring to a strain of the virus discovered in Britain which has also been found to be more contagious.The health minister said that all individuals in the UK who had contracted the variant originating in South Africa had been placed in quarantine as well as their close contacts.In addition to the travel restrictions, Mr Hancock said the government was also asking anyone who has been in close contact with someone who had been in South Africa in the last two weeks to quarantine.“They must restrict all contact with any other person whatsoever,” he said. The discovery of cases of what officials believe is a new, more transmissible variant of the coronavirus in the UK follows the announcement last week that a new strain had spread throughout the south of England.
In response to the growing number of coronavirus cases, Britain ordered a series of coronavirus restrictions across the affected areas.More than 50 nations also imposed their own travel restrictions on the UK, including France.A ban on cross-Channel freight to Europe has wrought havoc around the key port of Dover and led to fears of food shortages in the country’s supermarkets because of paralysis in supply chains.Mr Hancock on Wednesday announced the expansion of strict lockdown measures across further parts of the south of England to contain the spread of the disease.With more than 68,000 deaths from the virus, the United Kingdom is one of the hardest hit countries in Europe.
MUTANT STRAIN SPLITS SCIENTISTSIt comes as scientists around the world are rushing to gauge the dangers posed by a mutant strain of the coronavirus that has spread rapidly throughout Britain, prompting countries to shut their borders to travellers from the UK in an effort to shut it out.Australian authorities, however, have said they are not planning on imposing tougher restrictions on flights arriving from the UK anytime soon.Scientists advising the British government say early evidence indicates the new strain is more contagious than older variants, but that there are currently no signs that it causes more severe disease, the Wall Street Journal reported.Transmissibility, which means how easily the virus spreads from one person to another and the seriousness of the illness it causes, are both important metrics for assessing the potential threat.
Viruses mutate naturally and many strains of the new coronavirus have surfaced since it first spread around the world.Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he expected that the strain will circulate in the US if it isn’t in the country already, but added he didn’t believe it has been a factor in the current surge in infections in the US.Dr Fauci said he didn’t believe the US needed to stop flights from the UK, but that “I think you might want to consider the possibility of requiring people who get on a plane and fly from England to have been tested in the last 48 to 72 hours”.Dozens of countries around the world have moved to halt travel from Britain. Like Australia, the US has not. New York has asked airlines to require all passengers from Britain to have a negative COVID-19 test before boarding flights to the state.
Health experts claimed that newly authorised vaccines will protect against the new strain.Ugur Sahin, the chief executive of BioNTech SE, which partnered with Pfizer on a vaccine, said he thought the shot would work against the new variant of the virus, but that if it is indeed more transmissible, it could raise the threshold needed to protect the community.“If the virus becomes more efficient in infecting people, we might need even a higher vaccination rate to ensure that normal life can continue without interruption,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
Over the past week the British government suggested the new strain was spreading between 50 per cent and 70 per cent more rapidly than other strains of the virus.British scientists looked at how frequently the new variant was detected, whether changes in its replication might make it more transmissible and what data on the correlation between the increase in case numbers and increase in detection of the new variant showed.
“All those three strands of evidence really all point in the same direction that this virus is a new variant that is slightly more transmissible than the existing virus,” said Oxford Professor Peter Horby, who is chairman of the Nervtag panel, which advises the British government on new and emerging respiratory virus threats.But Professor Horby said more research was needed to figure out how much more transmissible the new strain is. “We still don’t understand the exact biological mechanisms of that, there is still a lot of uncertainty about exactly how it’s occurring, exactly the extent of the extra transmissibility.”
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EU EASES BAN OVER UK VIRUSBut there was some good news on the horizon. Europe on Wednesday began easing travel bans on Britain put in place to contain a new strain of COVID-19 that UK officials believe spreads faster as World Health Organisation experts met to discuss a response to the variant.The discovery of the new strain set off alarm bells worldwide just as more countries including Switzerland and Qatar began vaccine campaigns to halt a pandemic that has claimed more than 1.7 million lives since it began a year ago in China.The European Commission has urged EU nations to reopen their borders to Britain and replace the blockades with mandatory tests for arrivals.
Thanks to France’s relaxation of a 48-hour blockade, stranded truck drivers in the UK were finally offered a way home after thousands were stuck around the port of Dover for days.Under France’s new rules, EU nationals and residents are allowed home with a negative COVID test, though Britons remain barred.
But given the back-up, some truckers feared there was little chance of making it across the Channel in time for the holidays, and clashes broke out with police as tensions boiled over.“Home for Christmas? Forget it,” said Laurent Beghin, a French trucker who delivered a cargo of paint to the UK on Sunday and was still stuck in England on Wednesday (local time).Drivers pushed against police, shouting, during the scuffles as they complained of inadequate facilities and a lack of virus tests at a truck park where they were forced to wait.
Passengers with negative virus tests on Wednesday also boarded the first Eurostar trains from London to France since border closures, eager to spend Christmas with their families.The Netherlands said it was lifting its travel ban on the UK on Wednesday (local time) but noted that all passengers, including EU citizens, must have a recent negative test to enter.Scientists are still trying to forge a plan to control the COVID-19’s various strains, with Europe’s branch of the World Health Organisation meeting on Wednesday (local time).WHO’s Europe director Hans Kluge wrote on Twitter that the organisation would “discuss strategies for testing, reducing transmission & communicating risks”.He added that “limiting travel to contain spread is prudent until we have better info”.
The new strain of the virus, which has also been detected in small numbers elsewhere, appears to spread more easily than other types but experts say there is no evidence it is more lethal or resistant to vaccines.Britain on Wednesday introduced restrictions on travel from South Africa over the spread of another new variant of coronavirus, UK Health Minister Matt Hancock said.SWISS VACCINATION UNDERWAYCanada on Wednesday (local time) also approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by American biotech firm Moderna, two weeks after authorising immunisations with the Pfizer/BioNTech shot.As the European Union prepares to kick off vaccinations across the bloc on Sunday, Switzerland got a head start on Wednesday (local time) by delivering its first jabs in the Lucerne region.A care home resident in her 90s was the first to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after it was approved by Swiss regulators.
Qatar and Dubai also gave out their first jab on Wednesday, while Serbia and hard-hit Mexico are next in line with plans start vaccinations on Thursday.The co-founder of BioNTech has assured the firm’s vaccine is “highly likely” to work against the mutated strain detected in Britain.And if not, the vaccine could be adapted in six weeks, Ugur Sahin said, adding that tests are already being run on the variant.In the US, the world’s worst-affected country, top infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci received his COVID-19 jab as officials continued to seek to build public confidence.But President Donald Trump’s shock rejection of a US$900 billion ($A1.3 billion) relief package passed by Congress raised concern.Mr Trump said he would refuse to accept the bill as it is and demanded changes, notably a big increase in the proposed $600 direct payments to less well-off Americans.Politicians can override his veto if he goes through with it.
Elsewhere, Egypt called off all New Year’s celebrations in order to stem a rise in cases.The Czech government also extended its state of emergency and announced tighter restrictions including closing shops in the face of a spike in cases.And in Thailand, meanwhile, elephants dressed up in Christmas costumes for an annual tradition gave out pandemic-friendly gifts to schoolchildren: baskets of face masks.
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UK FACES ‘HUMAN DISASTER’ On Tuesday, a top British scientist claimed the country faces a “human disaster” with its COVID-19 crisis unless there is a widespread New Year lockdown.The warning came as France is due to reopen its borders with the UK – providing travellers tested negative for COVID-19.Professor Robert West warned the UK was facing catastrophe after Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the new strain has already spread “everywhere” in the UK.Mr Vallance said the new COVID strain was spreading at terrifying speed and Sage scientist Professor West, a psychologist at University College London, called for intensified efforts to stop the virus in its tracks, reports The Sun.
Professor West said an “economic human and social disaster” would follow unless the British government built up contact tracing systems similar to ones in East Asia.
He told The Guardian: “We need to reset our strategy and move rapidly to a zero COVID strategy of the kind that many have been proposing.“It sounds expensive but the alternative could well be a catastrophic collapse in confidence in the country’s ability to control the virus and the economic, human and social disaster that would follow.”UCL professor of infectious diseases, Andrew Hayward has pushed for a third UK-wide lockdown.He said: “I think it’s clearer to give a consistent national message because although the levels of risk are different in different parts of the country, they’re still there and they’re still substantial.”Britain’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty has warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the number of patients in hospital with COVID is on course to match the April peak by New Year’s Eve – and will continue increasing in January, reports the Daily Mail.Mr Johnson, while denying suggestions a third national lockdown was imminent, acknowledged at Monday’s Downing Street press conference, significant restrictions were likely to remain in place for months, but insisted it would be a “very different world’” by Easter.
Mr Vallance also warned of the new mutant strain ripping across Britain: “It’s more transmissible, we’ve absolutely got to make sure we’ve got the right level of restrictions in place.“I think it is likely that this will grow in numbers of the variant across the country, and I think its likely therefore that measures are going to need to be increased in some places, not reduced.”Already a third of Brits are in Tier 4 – the new highest level of restrictions like lockdown.In a grave warning, he added: “I think it is a case that this will spread more.”He said it was already “everywhere” after other health experts confirmed it was now in every region of the UK “This closure was perhaps already too late since they started finding cases of this English strain in September.”
NED-2170 How coronavirus mutates
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