Crédito: fuente
There were reports of “panic shopping” at British supermarkets ahead of the holiday season, as Britons watched televised scenes of massive traffic snarls of cargo trucks headed into the port of Dover.
France and dozens of other countries on Sunday and Monday imposed far-ranging travel bans on people traveling from Britain, after British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a new coronavirus mutation — spreading faster than other variants — was “out of control.”
British authorities said they do not believe that the new mutation is more deadly or vaccine resistant, but evidence of much higher transmissibility has alarmed governments in Europe and beyond.
Even if the strain is no more likely to cause disease, an overall surge in new infections will still send more people into hospitals and ICUs, and eventually cause more deaths.
Scientists in the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, which advises the British government, said the new variant was estimated to be 50 percent more transmissible.
They said once the mutation was established in a population, it quickly became dominant. Today, 80 percent of newly diagnosed cases in London, for example, were likely caused by the new mutation.
A review of the latest data on Monday underscored “high confidence” that new strain has a transmission advantage over earlier versions of coronavirus seen in Britain, said Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases at the University of Oxford.
The scientists said that in nasal and throat swabs taken from patients, there appeared to be more virus particles present, compared to earlier versions.
They also flagged early evidence that children appeared to be more susceptible to the new strain than earlier ones, although they cautioned it did not make the children more likely to have symptoms or become sick.
The new strain may make children “as equally suspectible as adults,” said Wendy Barclay, head of the Department of infectious-disease at Imperial College London.
In a news conference at Downing Street on Monday evening, Prime Minister Boris Johnson played down the trade disruption, saying it only affected freight carried by trucks with drivers, who travel by ferry or tunnel, which represents only 20 percent of the trade on the route.
“Which means the vast majority of food, medicines and other supplies are coming and going as normal,” Johnson said, adding that British supermarket supply chains are “strong and robust.”
The prime minister alluded to the threats and potential chaos of a no-deal Brexit by saying, “The government has been preparing for a long time for exactly this kind of event.”
But Johnson said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron and that the two countries were trying to sort out the blockade. And he said the number of trucks idling at the Dover port had been reduced from 500 to 170.
Earlier Monday, French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari had tweeted that, in coordination with other European nations, the country would “put in place a robust sanitary protocol to allow traffic flows from the United Kingdom to resume,” with details to be announced soon.
Scientists in Britain said the vaccine program should continue and that the new strain would likely not make the Pfizer vaccine — or others — any less effective. So far, 500,000 Britons have received their first doses.
Adam Finn, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Bristol, said Monday that the new strain was already being tested to see if it might be more resistant to vaccines. “It is a matter of immediate interest,” he said, adding that predictions are it will “have either no effect or a minor effect” on the efficacy of vaccines.
On Monday, Denmark, Hong Kong, India and Poland joined dozens of other countries in banning flights from Britain — although some European officials acknowledged that the efforts may come too late.
Tobias Kurth, director of the Institute of Public Health at Berlin’s Charité University Hospital, said the decision by numerous countries to “pull the emergency brakes” and suspend travel with Britain is “understandable.”
But Kurth cautioned that the mutation is “certainly already in continental Europe, and likely in Germany.”
“We won’t be able to stop it,” even though travel restrictions may slow the spread of the mutation, he said.
French Health Minister Olivier Véran said Monday morning that the new variant may already be in France. Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark said they have identified the mutation among recently discovered coronavirus cases in their countries.
Mutations of the virus that share traits with the British variant have also been detected in South Africa and the Netherlands.
British officials on Sunday announced 35,928 new coronavirus cases, nearly double the number from a week earlier. Health officials said the sharp increase was of serious concern but that it was too early to know whether it was linked to the new variant.
Because of soaring cases, many stoked by the new variant, Johnson ordered London and parts of the southeast England into Tier 4 lockdown over the weekend, telling 18 million people to “stay at home” and only venture out to shop for food and medicine, attend medical appointments or do outdoor exercise.
The British government said it would begin to assist British travelers stranded abroad. Earlier, Johnson announced his first trip overseas in January would be to India. His spokesman on Monday declined to say whether it would be canceled.
But the biggest disruptions were along the French and British sides of the English Channel. France suspended passenger and accompanied freight traffic, imposing a far more comprehensive ban than the border closures that were introduced during the first wave of the virus in spring.
The passage from Britain to France is one of the most important transport corridors in Europe, which means that food and other time-sensitive cargo may end up rotting on the side of British roads in the coming days.
Even though the restrictions do not ban trucks from entering the United Kingdom, industry representatives cautioned that few companies would be willing to take the risk of then becoming stranded there, meaning that traffic is likely to be heavily impacted in both directions.
“No driver wants to deliver to the U.K. now, so the U.K. is going to see its freight supply dry up,” said Vanessa Ibarlucea, a spokeswoman for the French road haulage federation, according to Reuters.
A major British supermarket group voiced similar concerns. “If nothing changes, we will start to see gaps over the coming days on lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflowers, broccoli and citrus fruit — all of which are imported from the continent at this time of year,” British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s warned in a statement on Monday.
Shapps, the British transport secretary, maintained there was no immediate risk of food shortages, partially because the government had been “ready for a degree of disruption” due to the possibility of a “no-deal” Brexit. Shapps also told Sky News that the entry ban “won’t have an impact on the vaccination program.”
However, there was no indication on Monday when passenger travel would resume. Many passengers were left stranded over the weekend as more countries canceled flights to and from the United Kingdom.
Beth Gabriel Ware, a British citizen who lives in Turkey, found herself stuck at her parents’ home in Kent after the Turkish government banned flights from Britain on Sunday. She had surprised her family with a visit after they had been apart for 10 months.
“I will be sleeping on the couch for the foreseeable future,” said Ware, 23.
Hind Mrabet, 21, who planned to move from Britain to Paris for school at the end of this week, now does not know when she will be able to cross into France.
“They seem to be making last-minute decisions that leave people in panic,” she said of the British government.
The travel disruptions come less than two weeks before Britain is set to cut its last membership ties with the E.U., even though both sides have yet to agree on a trade deal. One of the most widely feared impacts of a “no-deal” Brexit are widespread disruptions along Britain’s borders — a scenario that on Monday appeared to have already materialized and that could put additional pressure on Johnson, who is under criticism for his handling of Brexit negotiations and the coronavirus pandemic.
Noack reported from Berlin. Ruby Mellen in Washington contributed to this report.
