UK IN CRISIS
Ja could make decision today as British PM holds emergency meeting over virus travel bans
LONDON, United Kingdom (Afp/jamaica Observer) — Britain’s Government said yesterday it would hold a crisis meeting after countries worldwide banned arrivals from the UK over a new highly infectious coronavirus strain it said was “out of control”, as the World Health Organization (WHO) called for stronger containment measures.
Here in Jamaica, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton yesterday said the
developments were being monitored and he will be in a position to give some advice to the prime minister and the Cabinet today.
“I had meetings today [yesterday] with clinical experts on the new strain of the virus and the logistical connection between Jamaica and the UK,” Dr Tufton told the Jamaica Observer last night.
“Obviously, our first obligation is to protect the Jamaican population, even as we balance the concerns of the tourism industry and the possibility of exposure through travel,” he added.
Last year Jamaica welcomed just over 320,000 stopover visitors from the UK, which is one of the island’s major markets for tourists and home to a large community of Jamaican immigrants.
Today, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to chair the Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR) emergencies committee, his office said, after a slew of nations from Sweden to Turkey blocked arrivals from Britain by air.
Crucial transit country France moved to block people and goods crossing the Channel, while the Netherlands said passengers arriving by ferry would be denied entry.
COBR would “discuss the situation regarding international travel, in particular the steady flow of freight into and out of the UK”, a Downing Street spokesman added.
The ban on all but unaccompanied freight crossing to France comes as companies scramble to shift merchandise with days to go until Britain finally quits European Union (EU) trade structures in the wake of Brexit.
Late yesterday, Britain’s critical south coast port at Dover said it was closing to all accompanied freight and passengers due to the French border restrictions “until further notice”.
“I’m lucky I managed to board at Dover to get here before midnight!” Italian student Pesante told AFP as she arrived at the French port of Calais.
Alarm bells were ringing across Europe — which last week became the first region in the world to pass 500,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic broke out a year ago — as the new, even more infectious strain of the virus appeared to be raging in parts of Britain.
A WHO spokeswoman told AFP that “across Europe, where transmission is intense and widespread, countries need to redouble their control and prevention approaches”.
A German Government source said restrictions on air travel from Britain could be adopted by the entire 27member EU and that countries were also discussing a joint response over sea, road and rail links.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel held a conference call on yesterday about the matter, Macron’s office said.
Despite growing concerns about the new strain, EU experts believe it will not impact the effectiveness of existing vaccines, Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn said.
The assessment was shared by Britain’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty.
Prime Minister Johnson said the infectiousness of the new strain had forced him into locking down much of England over the Christmas period.
“Unfortunately, the new strain was out of control. We have got to get it under control,” UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News after Johnson abandoned plans to ease containment measures over the festive season.
Scientists first discovered the new variant — which they believe is 70 per cent more transmissible — in a patient in September. And Public Health England notified the Government on Friday when modelling revealed the full seriousness of the new strain.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 1,685,785 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT yesterday.
And with the onset of colder winter weather in the northern hemisphere where respiratory diseases flourish, countries are bracing for new waves of COVID-19 with tighter restrictions, despite the economic damage such lockdowns wrought earlier this year.
The Netherlands is under a five-week lockdown until mid-january, with schools and all non-essential shops closed to slow a surge in the virus.
Italy also announced a new regime of restrictions until January 6 that included limits on people leaving their homes more than once a day, closing non-essential shops, bars and restaurants and curbs on regional travel.
In Russia, health authorities said that the number of people who have died from the coronavirus has surpassed the 50,000 mark and now stands at 50,858.
Across the Atlantic, US lawmakers reached a deal yesterday for a nearly Us$900-billion COVID-19 relief package for millions of Americans as the nation struggles against the world’s largest outbreak of the virus.
The package is expected to include aid for vaccine distribution and logistics, extra jobless benefits of US$300 per week, and a new round of US$600 stimulus cheques — half the amount provided in cheques distributed last March under the CARES Act.
“We’ve agreed to a package of nearly US$900 billion. It is packed with targeted policies to help struggling Americans who have already waited too long,” Republican Senate leader Mitch Mcconnell said in a statement.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed an agreement had been reached with Republicans and the White House on a deal that “delivers urgently needed funds to save the lives and livelihoods of the American people as the virus accelerates”.
Congress was working under a deadline of midnight Sunday — needing to reach consensus both on assistance to hard-pressed American households and companies and on the 2021 federal budget in order to avoid a Government shutdown.
Number two Democrat in the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer said he expected the deal to pass today and then head to the Senate.
This would require passage of a stopgap measure by midnight Sunday to keep the federal government funded for an extra 24 hours and avert a shutdown.
“The House will move swiftly to pass this legislation immediately so it can quickly be sent to the Senate and then to the president’s desk for his signature,” Schumer and Pelosi said in a statement.
“With the horrifying acceleration of daily infections and deaths, there is no time to waste.”
The new deal is expected to maintain the central bank’s ability to set up emergency lending programmes without congressional approval, according to The Wall Street Journal, but the Fed would require approval to restart existing CARES Act programmes once they expire at the end of this year.
Republicans had sought to limit the Fed’s ability to provide credit for businesses and other institutions, claiming Democrats were trying to use the legislation to create a “slush fund” for state and local governments they control.
Democrats argued that restricting the bank’s powers could compound the fiscal crisis and hamper the ability of the incoming Joe Biden Administration to boost the ailing US economy.