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Wednesday, 23 December 2020 _The United Kingdom is grappling with a new variant of the Covid-19 virus, and the international response to it. Dozens of countries have suspended all arrivals from Britain even as officials warn the new travel bans could wreak havoc on the supply chains of food and goods days before Christmas. Meanwhile people across the country are trying to come to terms with their plans having been cancelled at the last minute.
All flights and trains coming from the United Kingdom have been barred from entering Europe. Other countries including Canada, Iran Israel, Saudi Arabia, Colombia and Morocco have also suspended flights to and from the UK for 48 hours or more.
Britons were rattled Saturday when the Prime Minister announced that Christmas visits would have to be canceled because of the new Covid-19 strain. And now there are growing fears the country will run out of fresh food in the days before Christmas because of freight and transport disruption.
The government insists there’s nothing to be worried about though, and that ahead of Brexit the government is fully prepared.
The British government is dealing with an escalating public health crisis, deepening economic upheaval and Brexit trade talks in Brussels simultaneously. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s handing of all three crises has come under fire, and faith in the government is waning.
The New strain of Covid-19 has already been detected in the Netherlands, Denmark Belgium and Iceland. On the upside, the scientists are saying the new strain is not resistant to the vaccines now being approved and administered.
More than half a million people have received the Pfizer jab in the UK, which was the first country to approve it, and Europe’s medicine regulators have approved it as well. Which means inoculations will be under way across the bloc in a matter of days.
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