Cases of new strain reported outside of UK – as it happened

We’ve launched a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest:

• El Salvador has banned travellers who have been to the UK or South Africa in the last 30 days.
• The Italian health ministry has recorded a patient with the same strain of the mutated virus found in the UK.
• Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia have all imposed travel restrictions on the UK.
• As France closes its border and subsequent trade routes through the Eurotunnel, businesses carrying cargo to France and elsewhere were left to panic.
• UK prime minister Boris Johnson is set to chair a COBR meeting as European countries continue to shut their borders.
• Qatar is the latest country to approve the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use.
• Top U.S. congressional leaders have announced an agreement on the awaited COVID-19 relief package, which is still yet to pass through congress.

Colombia will suspend all flights to the UK over fears about the new strain of coronavirus, President Ivan Duque has announced.

Adding to the growing list of countries now suspending travel to and from the UK, Reuters reports that after a visit to the Caribbean island of Providencia, Duque said, “From tomorrow flights from Colombia to the United Kingdom and from the United Kingdom to Colombia are suspended.”

“Anyone who arrives in the country from tomorrow who has been in the United Kingdom in the last 14 days will enter a 14-day isolation in our country.”

The new decision is understood to be ‘preventative’ to stop the new strain in Colombia.

Top U.S. congressional leaders have announced an agreement on the COVID-19 relief package.

The $900 billion relief package will provide new financial aid to the economy that has struggled by the coronavirus pandemic.

This would be the second-largest economic stimulus package in U.S. history following the $2.7 trillion aid bill that was passed in March.

The new aid package would give $600 direct payments to individuals, aim to boost unemployment by $300 a week, and give hundreds of billions of dollars in additional aid to small businesses, reports Reuters.

As many rushed to leave the UK before the travel restrictions were active, NYTimes correspondent, Patrick Kingsley, is reporting from Germany that foreign residents will have to spend the night in an airport in Berlin, until the COVID test centre opens at 6 am.

Like many countries this evening, Saudi Arabia has temporarily suspended all international flights for citizens and passengers over fears of the new fast-spreading variant of coronavirus.

Qatar is the latest country to approve the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use, Qatar state news agency, QNA, announced on Twitter.

Qatar is due to receive its first shipment of the vaccine on Monday.

The Port of Dover has issued a statement announcing it was closing to all lorry traffic on Sunday evening, saying: “Ferry terminal at the port of Dover is closed to all accompanied traffic leaving the UK until further notice due to border restrictions in France.”

It asked both “accompanied freight [trucks] and passenger customers not to travel to the port.”

A No 10 spokesperson has said that the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson is set to chair a COBR meeting on Monday, reports PA.

The Prime Minister will chair a COBR meeting tomorrow to discuss the situation regarding international travel, in particular the steady flow of freight into and out of the UK. Further meetings are happening this evening and tomorrow morning to ensure robust plans are in place.”

As France prepared to close its border at 11 pm tonight as part of coronavirus safety measures, many businesses are panicking, as the ban includes freight vehicles.

Since the announcement, Eurotunnel has suspended services for passenger and freight traffic for the outlined 48 hours. The Port of Dover has closed its ferry terminal for the UK to France and Eurostar is cancelling trains between London, Brussels, and Amsterdam.

On Sunday night, Eurotunnel tweeted that its last shuttle service departing for France would be leaving at 9.34 pm, with access to its UK site banned from 10pm.

Earlier, the Freight Transport Association, Logistics UK tweeted: “Logistics UK is aware of news that accompanied freight to France is not being allowed for 48 hours; we are concerned about the welfare of drivers and we are urgently seeking more information for our members.”

But one of Scotland’s key shellfish suppliers has tweeted out about the strain this will have on businesses, writing: “There will be Vivier trucks from all over Scotland heading in that direction, millions of pounds worth of seafood at the time of the most important market of the year the last one before Xmas, Jesus if BREXIT wasn’t going to put us out of business by Tuesday this week we will be.

“Even if we get through 48 hours later we will miss the Xmas deadline, this is unbelievable.”

20 Dec 202016.19 EST

Shaun Walker

At Gatwick Airport on Sunday evening, flights to destinations across central and eastern Europe were packed with last-minute travellers trying to get home before bans on travel from the UK came into force.

Flights to Budapest, Sofia, Bucharest and Gdansk were departing shortly before 10 pm and were all busy, with many travellers rushing to the airport to catch the final flights as it became clear during the day that borders were closing.

Some were attempting to fly on complicated transit routes via eastern Europe, to get to destinations that had already closed borders, such as Belgium or France. Many were denied boarding as the regulations changed by the hour.

Turkey is to temporarily suspend flights from Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and South Africa due to the new mutated strain of the virus, the health minister has said.

The measure was taken as a precaution in coordination with the transport ministry, reports Reuters.

The German health minister, said on Sunday, that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will be effective against the new strain of the virus.

Jens Spahn told the public broadcaster ZDF that considering everything they know, the new strain “has no impact on the vaccine”, which will remain “just as effective”.

The vaccine is currently approved for use in the UK, US, Chile, Malaysia, Bahrain, amongst other countries.

Iran is set to suspend flights to Britain for two weeks on Sunday, the state news agency IRNA reports.

“Due to the new circumstances in the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom, flights between Tehran and destinations in the UK will be suspended for two weeks,” IRNA quoted Shahram Adamnejad, a deputy transport minister, as saying, reports Reuters.

The Pfizer vaccine could start being deployed in Chile as early as next week, the president, Sebastian Pinera has said.

The Chilean health regulator had reportedly approved the vaccine for emergency use on Wednesday, the same day Pinera had confirmed that the laboratory would send the first 20,000 doses before the end of the month.

“We hope to start the vaccination process in Chile next week. And we are going to start with the people who have been on the frontlines, in critical care units, caring for critical patients,” Pinera said on television .

Adding, “we are going to work so that before the end of the first half of next year we can vaccinate the bulk of the target population of 15 million people, out of a total population of more than 18 million”.

As of Sunday, Chile ha reported 585,545 cases of Covid-19 with a total of 16,154 deaths.

France has reported 12,799 new confirmed Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 2,473,354. An additional 131 deaths have been reported, bringing the overall death toll total to 60,549.

The Italian health ministry is reporting that they have found a patient infected with the same mutated strain of coronavirus as the UK.

The infected patient returned to Italy from the UK with his partner in the past few days and landed in Rome’s Fiumicino airport. They’re now in isolation, the ministry said.

El Salvador has banned travellers who have been to the UK or South Africa in the last 30 days.

President Nayib Bukele announced the new decision on Twitter after linking a Reuters story on European countries closing their borders to UK passengers.

Announced on the Swedish Broadcaster, SVT, the Swedish government will impose a travel ban on passengers from Britain.

The Minister for Home Affairs, Mikael Damberg, told SVT, “We are preparing a decision to ban entry from the UK. It should come into effect as soon as possible.”

A formal decision is set for Monday.