The UK, which earlier banned all visitors from Denmark, has now restricted access to planes, ships, and trucks coming from the country, where a new mutated strain of the coronavirus has been discovered.
From Sunday, all planes and ships coming from Denmark are forbidden from landing and docking in the UK. The same goes for trucks whose drivers have visited the Scandinavian country in the past two weeks. British lorry drivers are required to quarantine for 14 days if their route recently passed through Denmark.
“Given the significant unknowns regarding the new mutation of Covid-19 originating in Denmark, we have moved quickly to protect our citizens and prevent the spread of the virus to the UK,” the Department of Transport said in a statement, explaining the decision.
The British government has been actively co-operating with international partners “to understand the changes in the virus,” it added.
Non-UK citizens coming from or through Denmark have been barred from entering Britain since Saturday. UK nationals arriving from the country were ordered to self-isolate for 14 days.
The restrictions were introduced after the discovery of a new strain of Covid-19 that has spread across mink farms in Denmark and already infected more than 200 people.
Danish scientists believe the mutated virus is more resistant to antibodies and could render ineffective the Covid-19 vaccines being developed across the globe. Denmark, which is one of the world’s largest producers of mink fur, reacted to the crisis by deciding to cull its entire herd of those animals, which is estimated at between 15 to 17 million.
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