The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called a meeting of members today to discuss a new, more infectious variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain.
The coronavirus causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease.
A spokeswoman said the meeting was designed to help with information-sharing.
“Limiting travel to contain spread is prudent until we have better info,” Hans Kluge, the WHO’s Regional Director for Europe, tweeted.
However, the Geneva-based body has cautioned against major alarm over the variant, saying that it is a normal part of a pandemic’s evolution and praising Britain for detecting it.
As trucks barred from entering France backed up along miles of motorway in southern England, the WHO also said in a statement that cargo transport for essential supplies such as food, medicines and fuel should be prioritised and facilitated.
“Supply chains for essential goods & essential travel should remain possible,” Kluge tweeted.
Drug makers including BioNTech and Moderna are scrambling to test their Covid-19 vaccines against the new variant.
The WHO repeated that there was not yet enough information to determine whether the new variant could affect vaccine efficacy.
More than 77.41mn people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 1,704,703 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
Meanwhile, the total United States Covid-19 cases surpassed 18mn yesterday as health officials tried to tamper fears about a new, highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom.
News of the coronavirus mutation comes as the United States deals with a surge in new infections that is overwhelming hospitals in some states.
The latest 1mn cases were recorded in just six days, according to a Reuters tally, as US Covid-19 fatalities approach 320,000, the most in the world.
Britain reported a record number of new Covid-19 infections yesterday as it battles a surge in cases caused by a variant strain of the disease.
Official figures showed there had been 36,804 new cases and a further 691 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, both up markedly from a day before.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his scientific advisers said on Saturday that a variant of the coronavirus, which could be up to 70% more transmissible, was spreading rapidly in Britain, although it was not thought to be more deadly or to cause more serious illness.
Meanwhile, people who fail to get a Covid-19 vaccination could be banned from using public transport in France, according to a draft law.
Prime Minister Jean Castex on Monday got his cabinet’s backing for a bill that is designed to provide a legal framework for dealing with health crises, including the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the text, which will now be submitted to parliament, a negative Covid test or proof of a “preventative treatment, including the administration of a vaccine” could be required for people to be granted “access to transport or to some locations, as well as certain activities”.
The government’s vaccination campaign is to start on Sunday, and officials already face widespread resistance to a treatment developed in record time since the outbreak hit Europe early this year.
A recent poll by the Journal du Dimanche newspaper found that 59% of respondents said they would not get a Covid shot, one of the highest rates in the European Union.
President Emmanuel Macron has promised that coronavirus vaccinations, though strongly recommended, will not be mandatory, a pledge reiterated by Health Minister Olivier Veran yesterday.
South Korea moved yesterday to shut down all ski resorts and winter tourist spots in a bid to stop the novel coronavirus spreading as a third wave of the pandemic proves much tougher to contain in the densely populated region of the capital city.
From December 24 to January 3, the government will close ski facilities and tourist attractions, popular during the year-end season, said Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, speaking during a televised briefing.
Taiwan reported yesterday its first locally transmitted case of Covid-19 since April 12, a friend of a New Zealand pilot who was confirmed to have been infected earlier this week, and is testing more than 100 contacts of the woman.
Taiwan has kept the pandemic well under control thanks to early and effective prevention methods and widespread mask wearing, with all new cases for more than the last 250 days being among travellers arriving on the island.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told reporters the new locally-transmitted case was a woman in her 30s who had close contact with the New Zealand pilot, who was himself confirmed to have been infected on Sunday having flown flights to the United States.
A coronavirus outbreak linked to a seafood market in Thailand passed 1,000 cases yesterday, as authorities weighed whether to introduce a wider lockdown.
Thailand has been on tenterhooks since Thursday following the positive virus test of a 67-year-old prawn seller from Mahachai market, Samut Sakhon province, about 40 minutes southwest of Bangkok.
As of early morning yesterday, there were 1,063 confirmed positive cases out of 6,156 tested – a major outbreak for a country which previously had 4,300 infections.
