Variant is causing infections to soar with cases in the UK reaching 35,928 on Sunday
European countries have banned flights and ferries carrying passengers from the UK in a desperate attempt to suppress the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus that has plunged southern England into a tier 4 lockdown.
In the most dramatic development, France announced that it was suspending passenger and human-handled freight transport from the UK for 48 hours from 11pm GMT. The Road Haulage Association warned that the move would have a “devastating effect” on supply chains to the UK already disrupted by Brexit stockpiling and coronavirus restrictions.
