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Summary
- Some European countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland and Romania have imposed travel restrictions on the UK
- France has imposed a 48-hour travel ban on the UK, starting from midnight of 20 December, in order to prevent the rapidly spreading new variant of coronavirus from entering France
The new variant of Sars-CoV-2 virus, VUI-202012/0 has created havoc in the UK and its neighbouring countries. Various countries all over the world have closed their borders for travellers coming from the UK.
On 20 December, PM Boris Johnson had imposed new stricter restrictions over various parts of Britain to curb the transmission of the new strain identified especially in London, south east and eastern England.
Good Read: New Covid-19 strain: Sunak under pressure to announce fresh relief packages
(Image source: ©Kalkine Group 2020)
The Netherlands was the first to react to the UK Government’s announcement regarding the new mutation. A host of European countries such as Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland and Romania have joined the Netherlands in imposing travel restrictions on Britain.
A 48-hours ban has been introduced by France with respect to all air travel with the UK in order to prevent the spread of the new variant of coronavirus. The ban is estimated to severely impact the travel plans of nearly 50,000 French nationals living in Great Britain who had planned to return to France for Christmas.
Certain flights arriving in France from the European Area (the UK, Andorra, Holy See, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, and Switzerland) and certain non-European countries are exempted from this travel ban.
In fact, France has suspended all travel links including cross-Channel rail, ferry services, flights and freight lorries. Thousands of lorries that ply between the countries every day have been halted because of the French restrictions, and the port of Dover also remained closed today.
The freight issue has become so critical that PM Johnson is scheduled to hold the COBRA (Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms) emergency response meeting today.
Eurotunnel, in response to France's ban, said it will also be suspending access to its Folkestone terminal from 22:00 GMT for traffic heading to Calais. However, trains will continue to run from Calais to Folkestone. People who had prior bookings to travel on Monday can get a refund. Eurotunnel is a 50-km railway tunnel linking the island of Great Britain to European mainland.
UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted that they were asking people, particularly hauliers not to travel to Kent ports or other routes to France.
The French government had ended national lockdown on 15 December, but the health situation in France is still critical.
