Another country – Italy – is shutting down entry from the UK after finding a corona variant that is thought to be 70 percent more contagious than more common variants of the virus.
Belgium and Israel have banned all entry from Britain. The latter has also banned entry from Denmark and South Africa, where the more contagious corona variant has also been found.
In Denmark, the Statens Serum Institut keeps an eye on at least nine confirmed cases of N501Y, which are not thought to lead to more serious covid-19 symptoms than other variants.
In the London area, the variant accounts for 60 per cent of new cases of infection. Here, citizens are now subject to a closure that also applies to the south-east of England.
