Israel is not the only nation that has once more decided it is safer to circle the wagons until there is more information about the latest incarnation of coronavirus: this one appearing as a variant of COVID-19.
Britain’s Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, has warned the new variant may be up to 70 percent more transmissible; he also said over the weekend that it is “getting out of control.”
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 67,700 people have died from COVID-19 in the UK, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
After having alerted the global community about the impending danger that awaited with the rapidly spreading mutant virus, this weekend the United Kingdom a growing list of nations imposed a travel ban on flights to and from the UK, concerned the mutant virus might spread further.
It had indeed already spread to Wales and Scotland, although it had not reached Ireland. Yet.
Travel ban notwithstanding, however, the variant — referred to by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “possibly Coronavirus 2” has already reached Italy, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, and even Australia, where domestic flights are now being canceled, according to DW.
But it turns out this “newly mutating form of COVID-19” has been around for several months already, even though the public is only hearing about it now.
Dr. John Campbell, an independent health analyst based in the UK, told DW the variant was first identified in “late September” in the county of Kent in England.
“Because it’s been around since September, there’s also potential, that it already is in European countries,” Campbell said. “It does appear to be more infectious in terms of correlation, because the areas where the infection has been increasing most dramatically is also the areas where the highest incidence of this mutation has been picked up.”
In response to the news, Saudi Arabia had closed its borders and suspended all international flights late Sunday.
The State of Israel made the same decision Monday. A number of other countries imposed a travel ban on the UK, but this is a similar pattern to the way the planetary travel suspension began the last time around as well.
Member states of the European Union are meeting in Brussels to coordinate a response to the crisis, the BBC reported. Officials have suggested that all arrivals from the UK be required to undergo a COVID-19 test.
Eurotunnel services to France were suspended, and at present Eurostar trains to Belgium have also been shut down.
Current nations imposing a ban of UK arrivals include Belgium, France, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Russia and Switzerland, in addition to Germany, Austria and Bulgaria.
- Ireland: Flights arriving specifically from England, Wales and Scotland are banned for 48 hours at least from midnight “in the interests of public health, people in Britain, regardless of nationality, should not travel to Ireland, by air or sea.”
- Germany: UK planes not allowed to land, cargo is an exception.
- Belgium: Flights and train arrivals from the UK suspended for 24 hours from Sunday midnight as a “precautionary measure.”
- Austria: UK flight ban.
- Italy: All flights from UK banned until January 6. First case of 501.V2 variant identified Sunday in Rome. Patient in isolation.
- Bulgaria: UK flights banned until January 31.
- Turkey: All UK flights banned.
- Switzerland: All UK flights banned.
South Africa’s Variant is Different
South Africa also is contending with a surge in new cases of the coronavirus — not only the “regular” coronavirus, but cases that have appeared from a new variant known as 501.V2.
The mutation is different from that in the UK, but both share a crucial mutation of the spike protein used by the coronavirus to gain entry to human cells. Scientists in South Africa’s Health Department said it is “very plausible” the spike mutation, N501Y, may lead to higher rates of infection based on a possible stronger viral load, but add more study is needed.
Speaking at a news briefing, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, chairman of the government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19, told journalists, “Its still very early, but at this stage the preliminary data suggest that the virus that is now dominating in the second wave is spreading faster than the first wave.”
Genome data specialists have traced the South African variant’s lineage to Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape, the first major metropolitan area to be hit by the country’s second wave.
The country has thus far recorded a total of 912, 477 cases of the virus, and at least 24,691 people have died in South Africa from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
As in Britain, the mutation is causing a leap in the numbers of confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths. In fact, about 80 to 90 percent of new cases in South Africa are caused by the new variant.
About one in three tests for the virus are coming back positive in the country’s worst hotspots, an indication it is spreading rapidly. Health officials say about 10,000 new cases a day have been diagnosed in recent days; that’s the highest number since the first wave peaked in August.
In response to the resurgence of the coronavirus, the South African government further tightened its lockdown restrictions.
It is not yet clear if the new vaccines will offer protection against the new variant. Meantime, the government is urging citizens to use the strategies that do work: social distancing, masks and hygiene.
On a macro scale, the international community has taken that strategy to much greater lengths.
As with the UK, South Africa became the focus of travel bans by the international community this past weekend, as many believed the UK variant was active there as well.
But once new information was published with an alert about the new variant, both Germany and Switzerland banned travel from South Africa. Incoming flights from South Africa to Germany and Switzerland were blocked effective Monday.