UK scrambles for exit from virus travel ban crisis

London: Britain on Tuesday sought a way to resume cross-Channel trade with France after supply routes were blocked in response to the discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus.

Dozens of countries have banned UK flights and the French imposed a temporary ban on hauliers, causing concern over shortages of some fresh food products over a Christmas period already marred by strict coronavirus restrictions.

The crisis has piled pressure on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government as London struggles to finalise a post-Brexit trade agreement with Brussels before a December 31 deadline.

With hundreds of lorry drivers stranded in the south of England, the European Union called on its members to facilitate transit and to lift other transport bans to avoid supply chain disruptions.

However, Germany and Italy have extended air traffic closures until 6 January and Ireland until 31 December. EU ambassadors in Brussels are due to discuss the situation later.

Among the solutions being suggested by the UK are tests for drivers, and virus screening in ports is "absolutely part of the discussion", British interior minister Priti Patel told Sky News.

More than 1,500 lorries are stranded in the southern English county of Kent, unable to make the crossing to France, with drivers having spent a second night sleeping in their cabs. As night fell on Tuesday, drivers of some 800 trucks parked at a nearby disused airport sounded their horns for more than half an hour in protest.

Rod McKenzie, managing director of the Road Haulage Association, said many of the drivers across Kent were Europeans, trying to get home for Christmas. "Yesterday Kent County Council offered each of them one cereal bar, which is a pretty poor effort, I think in terms of maintaining their morale, and their spirits," McKenzie told the BBC.

"We are not treating lorry drivers well in these very difficult conditions that they are in at the moment." Andrew Opie of the British Retail Consortium called for the borders to be opened from Wednesday.

"There is a problem potentially directly after Christmas and that is really in fresh produce, so we’re talking here about things like salad, vegetables, fresh fruit, of which the vast majority come from Europe at this time," he told the BBC.

Patel said discussions were going on between France and Britain, adding: "We will find a resolution." Johnson said late on Monday he had discussed the situation with French President Emmanuel Macron, who said he wanted a resolution "in the coming hours".

Meanwhile, the Indian state of Maharashtra has imposed a night curfew on cities including the country’s financial hub Mumbai because of fears about the new coronavirus strain from Britain, the local government said.

In addition, Mumbai airport said on Tuesday that all air passengers from anywhere in Europe or the Middle East will have to go into institutional quarantine upon arrival and then be tested. The announcements come even though daily numbers of new coronavirus infections has fallen sharply in India in recent weeks, including in Maharashtra, whose capital Mumbai is home to one of Asia’s biggest slums.

India is yet to confirm any cases of the new strain. The Maharashtra government said that the night curfew beginning on Tuesday would last until January 5. The restrictions will put a dampener on New Year’s celebrations in Mumbai and elsewhere in the western state of around 120 million people, which has seen the most Covid-19 cases and deaths in India.

India has reported the world’s second-largest number of coronavirus infections after the United States and crossed the 10-million caseload mark last week. It has registered more than 145,000 deaths.

In a related development, a coronavirus outbreak linked to a seafood market in Thailand passed 1,000 cases on Tuesday, 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.