France bans transports from UK due to new COVID-19 strain, Spain seeks EU response

Ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations, a number of European countries like Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and the Netherlands have gone on to ban flight and freight exchanges with the UK on Sunday due to the new variant of COVID-19 being detected in the latter. This urgency comes amid the UK and the European Union negotiating terms of Brexit in which headway is yet to be made. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will reportedly hold an emergency meeting to find ways to resume the flow of transportation into the United Kingdom on Monday.

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France PM tweets decision to shut borders with the UK for 48 hours 

France's Prime Minister Jean Castex has announced that his country too, along with several other European nations, has decided to ban traffic from the UK. He tweeted, "Considering the new health risks and pending their assessment, all arrivals from the United Kingdom to France are suspended from midnight for 48 hours for all transport means." 

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The main transport routes between England and France across the English Channel had reportedly been congested for two weeks, most likely due to the stockpiling by UK companies after the imposition of customs controls between Britain and the EU from January 1.

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Spanish Government demands a common response from the EU

The Spanish government has called on the Europen Union for a common response to the mutation of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom which has made a number of European countries close their borders with the UK. They explained that the goal is to protect the European Union citizens in a coordinated manner avoiding unilateralism, and the Spanish government expects a prompt response from the European institutions. 

UK’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock on December 19 said that the new Tier 4 restrictions across London and parts of England will stay for a couple of months, calling the new variant of Coronavirus ‘sobering’. In a tweet, Hancock said that in order to protect the NHS and to save lives, the guidelines in place must be strictly followed until the widespread rollout of the vaccines. 

READ | UK Tier-4 Lockdown Will Stay 'for Months' Until Widespread Vaccine Rollout: Hancock

(With ANI Inputs)