Europe cuts transport links on virus fears as Britain holds crisis talks

An arrivals infomation board, with a cancelled flight from Edinburgh, Great Britain, is pictured at Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on December 21, 2020, amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Germany and countries around the world have begun banning flights and travellers from the UK after a new strain of coronavirus was detected there. © AFP - Armando Babani

The United Kingdom stood shut off from the continent on Monday after European countries cut transport ties over fears of a new coronavirus strain, sowing chaos for families, truckers and supermarkets just days before the Brexit cliff edge.

France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Israel, India, Grenada, Sudan and Canada were among those that shut off travel ties after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that a highly infectious new strain of the virus was a danger to the country.

Johnson was due to chair an emergency response meeting on Monday to discuss international travel, in particular the flow of freight in and out of Britain. EU officials were also expected to hold talks on coordinating their response.

France shut its border to arrivals of people and trucks from the United Kingdom, closing off one of the most important trade arteries with mainland Europe, a step Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said was surprising.

"We're doing everything we can to get that restarted," Shapps told Sky. "They've said to us they want to restart the hauliers as quickly as possible."

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As families and truck drivers tried to navigate the travel bans to get back home in time for Christmas, Britain's second-largest supermarket chain, Sainsbury's, said gaps will start to appear on shelves within days if transport ties are not quickly restored with mainland Europe.

"If nothing changes, we will start to see gaps over the coming days on lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflowers, broccoli and citrus fruit – all of which are imported from the continent at this time of year," Sainsbury's said.

Shellfish producers in Scotland said they had tonnes of perishable products stranded on roads as the French border was closed. Disruption in Britain will also snarl supplies to Ireland.

Hong Kong is also due to ban all flights arriving from the United Kingdom from midnight, becoming the first city in Asia to do so. Asian nations including Japan and South Korea said they were closely monitoring the new strain.

Brexit contingency plans

Britain's Shapps said getting the bans lifted as swiftly as possible was his priority but that given British preparations for the end of the Brexit transition period, the country was well positioned for disruption.

Johnson on Saturday cancelled Christmas plans for millions of British people due to what he said was a more infectious strain of the coronavirus, though he said there was no evidence that it was either more lethal or caused a more severe illness.

The new variant contains 23 different changes, many of them associated with how it binds to cells and enters them. Shapps said Britain had done some of the best global analysis of the mutations of the virus so it was simply seeing what was already at large in other countries.

>> Explainer: Why is new coronavirus variant causing concern?

The British government triggered plans it had for stacking up trucks in the southeast county of Kent – part of its plans for potential disruption when the United Kingdom exits the EU's orbit with or without a trade deal at 11pm on December 31.

Trucks are being stacked on the M20 motorway through Kent, heading towards the ports, which is closed to normal traffic. A nearby airport will also be used to hold freight.