Coronavirus: Russia, Switzerland join growing list of countries banning UK travel

Russia will suspend flights to and from Britain for one week starting from Tuesday due to a new strain of the coronavirus detected in Britain, Russia’s coronavirus taskforce said on Monday.

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The Swiss government ordered people who have entered the country from the United Kingdom and South Africa since December 14 to go into a 10-day quarantine and imposed a general entry ban for foreign nationals seeking to travel from the two countries.

“Following the discovery of a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus in the UK and South Africa, the Federal Council today decided to take steps to prevent the further spread of this new virus strain,” it said in a statement on Monday, adding no cases of the new strain had been identified so far in Switzerland.

Major impact

Europe faces a “significant impact” to its air transport corridors after several nations cut transport links with Britain over fears of a new coronavirus strain, the Eurocontrol air traffic control agency warned on Monday.

“We’ll see a significant impact on the network as a result of the new variant in the UK,” Director General Eamonn Brennan wrote on Twitter, adding there had been 900 daily flights between Monday and Saturday last week between the UK and the 27 countries of the European Union.

Read more: Coronavirus: UK to hold COVID-19 crisis talks after France closes border