‘SICK MAN OF EUROPE’
BRITS have been held against their will at airports in Europe as the EU moves to ban all travel from the UK.
The move comes after a new mutant strain of Covid sparked the Tier 4 lockdown in London and the South East.
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Countries including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, and Bulgaria announced restrictions on UK travel.
In Germany, officials at Hanover airport set up campbeds for 63 people who arrived from Britain.
Nurses in hazmat suits were screening the last arrivals from the UK on Sunday night as angry passengers were told to sleep in the terminal building.
One passenger Manuela Thomys said in a video “we are being held against our will” and “please don’t leave us” while others decided to turn back to the UK.
The video published by also showed a nine-month-old baby among the stranded passengers who included British and German nationals.
Among them were Sarah Bridgewood, 37, and her three-year-old daughter Sofia, who were left stranded for 13 hours.
That was despite having already taken two £100 tests – which were negative – before leaving Newcastle airport.
"There were around 60 people on the plane, some with babies. We spent easily one hour just waiting to disembark," Ms Bridgewood
"I saw some folding beds and asked 'how long will we be here?', and they said 'until everybody is checked and gets their result'.
"We then had to sleep on a folding bed. It was a huge hall and it was freezing. We were all anxious. My daughter did have a few tears and she was a little bit upset. We just tried to make the best of it."
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Passengers arriving in Stuttgart Airport, were also told by the pilot of their Eurowings flight from the UK they would have to sleep on camp beds on arrival.
There were similar scenes at in Berlin where 77 passengers were awaiting test results this morning after arriving from Britain last night.
The European Council is meeting this morning to discuss a complete travel ban from the UK - and indication of alarm that has gripped the continent.
Ireland has also stopped flights, causing chaos at Heathrow as hundreds of passengers scrambled onto the last flight to Dublin moments before the travel ban took effect.
Meanwhile the Italian authorities also announced the mutant strain had been detected in a traveller who recently returned to the country from the UK.
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With France suspending all traffic from the UK for 48 hours, fears have were raised trade could be severely disrupted.
But that was later lifted as the EU sought to work out a common approach to travel and trade to and from the UK.
French transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said a protocol would be adopted at a European Union-wide level "to ensure that movement from the UK can resume".
Supermarkets face major shortages of food and Christmas goods after France closed its UK border.
But supplies of the Covid vaccine will not be affected, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Monday morning.
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Outside Europe, Hong Kong, Canada, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Kuwait, El Salvador, Argentina, Chile and Morocco have all imposed their own travel bans.
But US officials have said they won’t ground UK flights despite the spread of the Covid mutant strain, as Europe shuts its doors to Brits.
Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor to the government's Operation Warp Speed vaccine program, told CNN's 'State of the Union' that US officials “don't know yet” if the variant is present in the country.
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“We are, of course... looking very carefully into this,” including at the National Institutes of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said.
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At the moment, he added, no strain of the Covid-19 virus appears to be resistant to the vaccines available.
“This particular variant in the UK, I think, is very unlikely to have escaped the vaccine immunity,” Slaoui said.
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