New variant of COVID-19: Over 20 countries have now cut all passenger air travel ties with the UK, Boris Johnson to chair an emergency meeting

A growing list of countries have issued travel restrictions following the United Kingdom’s announcement that it is battling a new Covid-19 variation.

Over 20 countries have banned travel to or from the UK, while other countries have imposed additional restrictions on travelers from the UK.

The United Kingdom has detected a new variation of Covid-19 that England’s chief medical officer says is more contagious than previous variants. The variant

is attracting attention:

It is rapidly replacing other versions of the virus
It has mutations that affect part of the virus likely to be important
Some of those mutations have already been shown in the lab to increase the ability of the virus to infect cells

All of these come together to build a case for a virus that can spread more easily.

In a statement, Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty, said:

As announced on Monday, the UK has identified a new variant of COVID-19 through Public Health England’s genomic surveillance.
As a result of the rapid spread of the new variant, preliminary modeling data and rapidly rising incidence rates in the South East, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) now consider that the new strain can spread more quickly.
We have alerted the World Health Organization and are continuing to analyse the available data to improve our understanding.
There is no current evidence to suggest the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments although urgent work is underway to confirm this.
Given this latest development, it is now more vital than ever that the public continue to take action in their area to reduce transmission.

Professor Chris Whitty-Chief-Medical Officer for England

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold an emergency meeting on Monday, after France and an over 20 growing list of other countries, including Turkey, halted flights and shut their borders to try to curb the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The government said late on Sunday that Boris Johnson will chair its crisis-management committee, known as Cobra, to discuss international travel, in particular the flow of freight in and out of the country.

UPDATES:

Nearly 50 countries across 5 continents have cut All passenger air travel & transport ties with the UK. The majority of countries including Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Kuwait, Turkey, Canada, India, Pakistan have now started their bans on all passenger travel to and from the United Kingdom citing concerns of the spread of a new COVID-19 strain.

Pakistan and Kuwait become the latest country to ban all flights & travel to/from UK flights from midnight.