![\"\"](\"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Paris-Station-300x200.jpg\")
RFI \u2014 France joined other European countries on Sunday night by closing its borders to travellers from Britain after Boris Johnson’s government imposed tough restrictions in southern England to curb a new fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Johnson, ordered a lockdown on more than 16 million people in London and south-eastern England and reversed plans to ease curbs over Christmas.<\/p>\n
The British prime minister said the new strain was up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original.<\/a><\/p>\n Following Johnson\u2019s move, the Netherlands suspended flights and trains from Britain in an attempt to prevent the spread of the\u00a0strain.<\/p>\n Belgium’s prime minister,\u00a0Alexander de Croo, told the VRT broadcaster \u00a0 <\/a>its ban would start at midnight on Sunday and\u00a0cover incoming\u00a0Eurostar services via the Channel Tunnel.<\/p>\n He said Belgium was also in touch with France over road passengers from Britain.<\/p>\n After Emmanuel Macron convened a meeting of top ministers on Sunday afternoon,\u00a0France said it would bar all people coming from Britain\u00a0for 48 hours from Sunday night. The ban would include\u00a0freight carriers, whether by road, air, sea or rail.<\/p>\n Earlier on Sunday,\u00a0Italy’s foreign minister,\u00a0Luigi di Maio, said in a Facebook post that flights would be suspended to and from Britain.<\/p>\n “As a government we have the duty to protect Italians, for this reason, after having notified the British government, with the Ministry of Health we are about to sign the provision to suspend flights with Great Britain,” Di Maio said. “Our priority is to protect Italy and our compatriots.”<\/p>\n On Sunday evening, a swath of eastern European nations including\u00a0Bulgaria,\u00a0Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and the Czech Republic\u00a0\u00a0joined the group.<\/p>\n Announcing a ban on flights to and from Britain and South Africa, Jens Spahn, Germany’s health minister, said the virus mutation had not been identified in his\u00a0country.<\/p>\n Long haul<\/strong><\/p>\n On Sunday morning, Matt Hancock, Britain’s health minister, said the measures announced on Saturday night by Johnson\u00a0could stay in place for some time.<\/p>\n “We’ve got a long way to go to sort this.\u201d Hancock told Sky News<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cEssentially we’ve got to get that vaccine rolled out to keep people safe. Given how much faster this new variant spreads, it’s going to be very difficult to keep it under control until we have the vaccine rolled out.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this month, British health officials gave emergency approval to use the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.<\/p>\n Elderly care home residents and their carers were put top of the lost followed by\u00a0those aged 80 <\/a>and over and frontline health and care staff.<\/p>\n But that\u00a0surge of optimism has been dampened on the eve of the Christmas holidays.<\/p>\n