The Latest: Thousands of truckers still trapped in UK gridlock, unable to get home for Christmas - pressherald.com

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DOVER, England — Trucks inched slowly past checkpoints at the English port of Dover and headed across the Channel on Thursday to the French port of Calais after France partially reopened its borders with Britain following a scare over a rapidly spreading new virus variant.

Still, thousands of truck drivers and travelers remained trapped in the mass gridlock at the Dover port on Christmas Eve, held up by slow delivery of the coronavirus tests now demanded by France. One by one, trucks passed toward ferries and trains that link Britain with France, as authorities checked that drivers had the negative virus tests required to cross.

On the French side, powerful winds buffeted the coast before dawn and the vast Calais port — which normally takes in up to 4,000 trucks a day — remained quieter than usual.

Vehicles queue to move into the departures boarding area as COVID-19 tests are carried out at the Port of Dover as thousands are wait to resume their journey across The Channel after the borders with France reopened on Christmas Eve. Aaron Chown/PA via Associated Press

A Dover port spokeswoman said it “received” fewer than 100 freight vehicles “due to restrictions on testing,” and officials warned the backlog could take days to clear. One U.K. road haulage expert estimated there could be 8,000 to 10,000 trucks caught up in the chaos near Dover but a government minister said it involved some 4,000 trucks.

French Ambassador Catherine Colonna said two dozen French firefighters have been sent to Dover, bringing 10,000 coronavirus tests for drivers desperate to get home for Christmas. British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said British and French authorities have agreed to keep the border between the countries open throughout Christmas to help truck drivers and travelers get home.

Dozens of countries around the world began barring people from Britain last weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said large areas of southern England had to be placed under harsh restrictions to curb a new, more contagious version of the virus whipping around London and England’s southeast.

France’s move raised the most concern, since France is a major conduit for trade and travel between Britain and the continent. The U.K. relies heavily on cross-Channel commercial links to the continent for food at this time of year, especially fresh fruit and vegetables.

The announcement of the coronavirus variant added to anxieties at a time when Europe has been walloped by soaring new virus infections and deaths. Europe as a whole has recorded over 500,000 virus-related deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that experts agree is probably an undercount due to missed cases and other factors.

Britain has seen soaring infection rates in recent weeks, with many hospitals nearing their capacities. On Wednesday, the country reported another 744 deaths and a record 39,237 confirmed new cases. Christmas gatherings and festive shopping were cancelled for millions at the last minute in a bid to control the spread of the virus.

London now has the highest rate of people testing positive in the country, with an estimated 2.1% of people testing positive for COVID-19, according to figures published Thursday by the Office for National Statistics.

France defended its handling of the border situation after the EU’s transport commissioner issued unusually strong public criticism.

Commissioner Adina Valean, of Romania, tweeted: “I deplore that France went against our recommendations and brought us back to the situation we were in in March when the supply chains were interrupted.”

France’s European affairs minister, Clement Beaune, tweeted back that France had “exactly followed the EU recommendation” and is now “more open than other European countries” to arrivals from Britain.

Some European countries relaxed their travel limits on Britain on Wednesday, though many remain. China on Thursday became the latest nation to suspend flights to and from the U.K.

New coronavirus mutation appears to emerge in Nigeria

NAIROBI, Kenya — Another new variant of the coronavirus appears to have emerged in Nigeria, Africa’s top public health official said Thursday, but he added that further investigation was needed.

The discovery could add to new alarm in the pandemic after similar variants were announced in Britain and South Africa, leading to the swift return of international travel restrictions and other measures just as the world enters a major holiday season.

“It’s a separate lineage from the UK and South Africa,” the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters. He said the Nigeria CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in that country — Africa’s most populous — will be analyzing more samples.

A hair stylist takes the temperature of a customer inside a salon in Lagos, Nigeria in September. Associated Press/Sunday Alamba

“Give us some time … it’s still very early,” he said.

The alert about the apparent new variant was based on two or three genetic sequences, he said, but that and South Africa’s alert late last week were enough to prompt an emergency meeting of the Africa CDC this week.

The variant was found in two patient samples collected on Aug. 3 and on Oct. 9 in Nigeria’s Osun state, according to a working research paper seen by The Associated Press.

Unlike the variant seen in the UK, “we haven’t observed such rapid rise of the lineage in Nigeria and do not have evidence to indicate that the P681H variant is contributing to increased transmission of the virus in Nigeria. However, the relative difference in scale of genomic surveillance in Nigeria vs the U.K. may imply a reduced power to detect such changes,” the paper says.

The news comes as infections surge again in parts of the African continent.

The new variant in South Africa is now the predominant one there, Nkengasong said, as confirmed infections in the country approach 1 million. While the variant transmits quickly and viral loads are higher, it is not yet clear whether it leads to a more severe disease, he said.

“We believe this mutation will not have an effect” on the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines to the continent, he said of the South Africa variant.

French President Macron to leave isolation

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron no longer has virus symptoms and is leaving isolation after a week with COVID-19, but is urging the French public to limit contacts and remain vigilant to keep infections under control during the Christmas holiday season.

Macron’s office said in a statement on Thursday that he is finishing a week of isolation at a presidential retreat in Versailles based on French health protocols, which recommend seven days of confinement following a positive virus test.

French authorities lifted virus restrictions for the holidays but infections remain high, and some doctors are urging new lockdown measures.

As families prepare to gather for traditional Christmas Eve dinners Thursday, infectious disease specialist Karine Lacombe warned that the meal “is one of the most risky situations for transmitting the virus.”

But she said on France-Info radio that after an emotionally trying year, “It’s important to take into account the need to have some conviviality, it’s a balance between the benefit and the risk.”

France recorded nearly 15,000 new infections Wednesday and a total of 61,978 virus-related deaths throughout the pandemic, among the world’s highest official death tolls.

New York will deploy officers to ensure U.K. travelers are following quarantine

New York City will send law enforcement officers to hotels to check on recently arrived travelers from the United Kingdom and ensure that they are following quarantine requirements, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced Wednesday.

Citing concerns about the fast-spreading coronavirus mutation that was recently discovered in Britain, de Blasio warned that the city “cannot take chances” during the busiest travel season of the year. All travelers are already required to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival, and sheriff’s deputies will be stationed at train stations, bus depots and airports, he said. The mayor added that officers will also pull over drivers to ensure they are aware of the rules.

Given the “particular concern” surrounding travel from Britain — where another coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa was also detected on Wednesday — those visitors will receive in-person visits.

“We’re going to have sheriff’s deputies go to the home or the hotel of every single traveler coming in from the U.K.,” de Blasio said at a news conference.

Anyone who is out sightseeing when the deputies arrive faces a fine of up to $1,000, de Blasio said, “and we will collect those penalties.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the new variant is probably already circulating in the United States, given that only a tiny fraction of coronavirus cases have been genetically analyzed for potential mutations. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) has called on the federal government to enact a travel ban for anyone coming from Britain, but experts say that such a move might make little difference when the mutation has probably already reached the United States.

Cuomo announced Tuesday that British Airways, Delta and Virgin Atlantic — the three airlines offering flights from the United Kingdom to New York — have agreed to ensure that all passengers test negative for the coronavirus before boarding.

Russia experiences highest one-day spike in cases

MOSCOW — Russian authorities reported 29,935 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the highest daily spike in the pandemic.

This is nearly 2,700 infections more than was registered the previous day. Russia’s total of over 2.9 million remains the fourth largest coronavirus caseload in the world. The government’s coronavirus task force has also registered more than 53,000 deaths in all.

Russia has been swept by a rapid resurgence of the outbreak this fall, with numbers of confirmed COVID-19 infections and deaths significantly exceeding those reported in the spring. The country’s authorities have resisted imposing a second nationwide lockdown or a widespread closure of businesses.

Earlier this month, mass vaccination against COVID-19 started in Russia with Sputnik V — a domestically developed coronavirus vaccine that is still undergoing advanced studies among tens of thousands of people needed to ensure its safety and effectiveness. Russia has been widely criticized for giving Sputnik V regulatory approval in August after it had only been tested on a few dozen people.

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