Bad News! Travel Ban Announced As Covid19 Mutates

Countries around the world started issuing travel advisories to their citizens after citing the growing number of infections in United Kingdom. By Sunday the number of recorded daily infections reached an all time high of 35,928 new cases. The advisories came after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on Saturday imposed a wide scale lockdown in London and south east England.

Many residents of London scrambled to train stations to escape the new restrictions, which went into effect on Saturday 19 December 2020, by midnight. Among the countries that issued travel bans for their nationals is Belgium, Ireland, Turkey, Germany and Canada among others.

The restrictions came after scientists in United Kingdom discovered a new variant of the virus infecting the latest patients that was different from the initially researched virus.

Doctors who were treating patients at London hospitals noticed that the mutant virus could spread, at a rate 70 percent faster than the initial Covid19. The scientists researching the mutant Covid19 urged for calm from the public, as they stated virus mutations are normal and expected. United Kingdom doctors noticed a similar characteristic of contagious behavior in the mutant Covid19 to a variant that had emerged in South Africa.

In London travel was restricted for all except in emergency, work or essential. Police officers were increased in order to monitor railway stations to make sure only essential travel is taken.

Sailors weren’t lucky either as during the year’s biggest shipping season, the Port of Dover closed its ferry terminal to “all accompanied traffic”. Traffic was already high at the moment as companies had piled goods before Brexit customs rules went into effect.

The new restrictions have realigned the relationship between Britain and the European Union countries, who were having trade negotiations for Brexit. The European Union member states decided to meet in Brussels to discuss a coordinated response on the UK travel bans.

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