Coronavirus Britain

Border closures may not stop spread of new strain: Experts

Police officers block access to the port in Dover, England, after France closed its borders, on Dec 22. PHOTO: AFP

LONDON • As nation after nation rushed this week to close their borders with Britain, the moves brought back memories of the way the world reacted after the coronavirus first emerged broadly in the spring.

Most of those initial travel prohibitions came too late, put in place after the virus had already seeded itself in communities far and wide. This time, with countries trying to stop the spread of a new, possibly more contagious coronavirus variant identified by Britain, it may also be too late.

It is not known how widely the variant is already circulating, experts say, and the bans threaten to cause more economic and emotional hardship as the toll wrought by the virus continues to grow.

Belgium, for example, recorded four cases of the mutant coronavirus variant sweeping Britain at the start of this month, health officials said on Tuesday.

The four cases were uncovered in the country's northern Flemish regions that border the Netherlands, said Mr Jan Eyckmans, spokesman for Belgium's Health Minister.

A spokesman for the national virus crisis centre said the figure was conservative and that other infections by the strain could have gone undetected as Belgium screens for new mutations far less than Britain does.

"It is idiotic" was the blunt assessment of Dr Peter Kremsner, director of Tubingen University Hospital in Germany. "If this mutant was only on the island, only then does it make sense to close the borders to England, Scotland and Wales. But if it has spread, then we have to combat the new mutant everywhere."

He noted that the scientific understanding of the mutation was limited and its dangers unclear, and described as "naive" the notion that the variant was not already spreading widely outside Britain.

Also, Britain has some of the most sophisticated genomic surveillance efforts in the world, which allowed scientists there to discover the variant when it might have gone unnoticed elsewhere, experts said.

South Korea and the Philippines, meanwhile, have moved to temporarily suspend UK flights, while Japan is strengthening entry regulations for people travelling from Britain - joining a long list of countries that have turned wary of travellers from the UK.

Dr Hans Kluge, the World Health Organisation's regional director for Europe, said member states would try to come up with a coherent approach to any threat posed by the variant.

At the moment, he wrote on Twitter, "limiting travel to contain spread is prudent until we have better information". But he added, "no one is safe until everyone is safe".

With growing calls for the United States to join the dozens of nations imposing bans on travel from Britain, Dr Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious disease expert, urged caution, saying there was a good chance the variant was already there.

"I don't think that that kind of a draconian approach is necessary," he said on PBS NewsHour on Monday night. "I think we should seriously consider the possibility of requiring testing of people before they come from the UK here."

In the absence of federal action, other state and local leaders called for similar measures before the peak holiday travel days.

Many countries already require a negative coronavirus test for entry, but cutting off all travel between nations is a more fraught proposition.

NYTIMES, BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on December 24, 2020, with the headline Border closures may not stop spread of new strain: Experts. Subscribe