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The concern around a metamorphosed and high-speed moving variant of coronavirus in the UK has triggered a worldwide travel turmoil of late and has prompted several countries to impose to-and-fro travel restriction for the UK flights.
Casting or modeling assessment of the variant, as the health officials in the UK say, suggests that it is approximately 70% more contagious and even might be accountable for a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases in South East England in a couple of last weeks. This fear of spread of the variant has forced the British prime minister Boris Johnson to impose Tier-4 constraints in London, the South East, and East of England.
While the lockdown in the whole of the United Kingdom was ensued by masses rushing to the transport stations to leave for their destinations before the final restrictions came into play, several other countries were planning to respond to the news in a rather strict manner.
European countries promptly blocked to-and-fro travel from the UK. These countries included France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, and Ireland, joined by many others in America, Middle East and Asia.
Facts about the new coronavirus strain
- This virus has a tendency to evolve or mutate quickly
- Reports of COVID-19 cases in London almost doubled in the week goneby and as much as 60% of these infections were attributed to the new coronavirus strain.
- Other coronavirus variants have also been reported earlier. One has been reported in minks.
Image source: Shutterstock
UK seems to lose jobs after the variant’s news
As on December 7, 2020, more than 200,000 jobs have disappeared from the British corporate landscape. Companies across the UK have been witnessing their revenues running into losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic blow. To add to it, many private and public firms have been announcing job cuts. Also, the closure of the government’s job retention scheme in October should also need a mention here.
With the news of this novel variant of coronavirus concerning one and all, the losses in the businesses might get worse.
Spreading easily in children?
According to media reports, the worst consequence can be faced by children. Scientists are probing the causes, which are pointing towards the possibility that the new variant circulates more swiftly among children. This claim has come through the members of New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats advisory group (Nervtag).
Exporters can get reluctant
The lockdown has triggered the worry that European exporters would now become hesitant to transport goods to the UK. The ‘unwanted’ scheduling of limitations, just a few days prior to Christmas, has also mounted apprehensions about shortages of civil supplies like food and medicines in the UK at a crucial moment.
Retain control
The present statistics are continuously being analysed. And it is even being thought that the variant continued to spread also during the lockdown period in November.
The average number of people each infected person passes the virus onto, which is also termed as the ‘R number’, is anticipated to hover around 1.2 for this variant even during the tight restrictions. This clearly suggests that the cases are on the rise.
At the same time, under the same set of restrictions, the R number was 0.8 for other forms of the virus during the lockdown, and it was in decline.
Meanwhile, Johnson held an emergency meeting with ministers on 21 December 2020 after which, he assured the people that things would be under control soon and most importantly there would be no shortage of necessary supplies.
