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According to reports here today France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Italy have all announced restrictions on UK travel. It is also reported that the Channel Tunnel has been closed or stopped.
This due to a new virulent strain of coronavirus which has arisen in the south of England.
Hi Bruce I suspect there is a lot more of the 'new variant' C19 in Europe than those cases that are being acknowledged , we have the advantage of Porton Down which is a world class facility some countries do not have .
I understand you already have cases in Australia.
Along with the UK, the same mutation of the Covid-19 virus has also been detected in the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia, the WHO told the BBC.
Hi Bruce I suspect there is a lot more of the 'new variant' C19 in Europe than those cases that are being acknowledged , we have the advantage of Porton Down which is a world class facility some countries do not have .
That could be true but it will only be in Hotel Quarantine and not in the community. The only community transmission at the moment is the northern beaches cluster in NSW (15 cases in the last 24 hours) and that is a strain from the USA from an air crew member who arrived on the 1st December. How it got from there to the northern beaches is a mystery at the moment
Currently there is no other community transmission in Australia. I am watching the NSW Premier's 11am press conference as I type so that is about as up to date as you can get.
The advantage of low case numbers is that every case can be genome sequenced and tracked.
Breaking News:
Funnily enough at this very moment the Chief Health Officer at the press conference was asked about the UK strain and she said there have been two cases in returning travellers of the British Coronavirus but none in the community. I presume that means the virus has been eliminated in Hotel Quarantine (so far).
According to this evenings news this strain is no worse than the previous one as far as the illness goes but it is far more contagious. It is also thought that the existing emergency vaccines will protect against it.