Anthony Fauci, the US’s top infectious disease expert, has confirmed that the US is considering testing UK travellers before they are allowed to enter the US.

But he dismissed an outright ban on travel from the UK as an “over reaction”. Asked by BBC News if the US planned to follow more than 40 countries in banning travellers from the UK, Fauci said:

At this point I am not recommending that, I think that might be a bit of an overreaction. However, I certainly respect the other countries in their decisions of what they’re going to do.

I think we should seriously consider the possibility of requiring pre-flight testing before people leave from the UK to the United States. That’s something that’s on the table that I believe needs to be seriously considered rather than an out-and-out now ban on all travel from the UK to the United States.

Speaking 45 minutes before he is due to receive the vaccination, Fauci said he hoped his jab would encourage others. He said:

I want this to be a symbol for the people in the United States to encourage them about the safety and the efficacy of this vaccine, and to get them to be enthusiastic when their time comes to get vaccinated.

A further 405 people have died in English hospital after testing positive for Covid, NHS England has announced. It brings the English hospital death toll to 46,983.

The patients were aged between 26 and 100 years old. The date of death ranged from 2 July to 21 December 2020 with the majority being on or after 18 December.

Here’s a regional breakdown:

East of England – 49

London – 53

Midlands – 82

North East & Yorkshire – 78

North West – 64

South East – 56

South West – 23

Thousands of cases of the more infectious variant of coronavirus have been detected across the UK, according to scientists, who said it had clearly spread beyond areas under the most severe tier 4 restrictions.

The latest genetic surveillance suggests the new strain spread rapidly from Kent and London in late September and reached the south-west, the Midlands and the north of England, although London, the south-east and eastern England remain by far the most affected regions.

“It is certainly not the case that this is just completely geographically constrained in what is the current tier 4 area,” said Dr Jeffrey Barrett, a statistical geneticist working on Covid-19 at the Wellcome Trust’s Sanger Institute near Cambridge.

Prof Tom Connor, a consultant bioinformatician at Cardiff University, said genetic sequencing had picked up the new variant, named B117, in north and south Wales in keeping with its spread across the country. “The sequence data shows quite clearly there are cases all around the UK,” he said.

Read more here:

Covid cases in Scotland have risen by 1,316 in the last 24 hours and further 43 people have died, the Scottish government has announced.

In Northern Ireland another 439 people have tested positive and further 16 people have died.

Ireland will shut restaurants, pubs serving food and some shops from Christmas Eve after health officials warned the country had quickly spiralled into a third wave of infections, Reuters reports.

Prime Minister Micheal Martin said there was no evidence that a new, virulent variant of the virus that has isolated neighbouring Britain had reached Ireland, but the safest way forward was to assume it had.

Ireland has one of the lowest incidence rates in Europe after moving early in October to temporarily shut shops, bars and restaurants. Unlike much of Europe, they have largely been open again during the busy December trading period.

However daily cases were now rising at 10%, Martin said, prompting the government to scrap provisional plans to keep hospitality open until closer to the New Year and move to a modified version of its highest level of restrictions until 12 January.

Martin said:

Unfortunately in the last week we have seen extraordinary growth in the virus. This is the same pattern as we have seen in the United Kingdom and across Europe.

While we do not yet have firm evidence that the new more virulent strain of the Covid virus is in our country, the rate of growth tells me that the safest and most responsible thing to do is to proceed on the assumption that it is already here.

A claim by the transport secretary Grant Shapps on Monday evening that only 170 lorries were held up in Kent is looking increasingly dubious.

Switzerland got its first doses of vaccine on Tuesday, Reuters reports citing health officials.

Switzerland’s drugs regulator authorised use of jabs from Pfizer and partner BioNTech on Saturday in what officials called the world’s first such approval under a standard procedure.

An initial batch of 107,000 doses will go to individual cantons to start inoculating vulnerable people, including those over 75 at first and those with medical conditions.

“In the next seven days the first targeted vaccination programmes can start,” federal health agency official Virginie Masserey told a news conference in Bern.

Unlike a high-profile vaccine rollout in Britain, Swiss officials are keeping the media away from homes for the elderly where the first jabs will take place.

“Switzerland’s Maggie remains unknown,” the Blick tabloid wrote in reference to Margaret Keenan, the 90-year-old British grandmother who this month became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer vaccine.

In the eyes of the world’s media, Britain – a “Plague Island” led by a man who thinks “optimism is a substitute for hard truths and proper management” – is currently getting a good lesson in “what ‘reclaiming sovereignty’ means”.

If never quite explicit, the schadenfreude is palpable as dozens of countries, days before the end of the Brexit transition period and with no trade deal yet agreed, suspend travel from the UK in response to the new, more contagious coronavirus variant.

Much of the blame was on Boris Johnson, who’s U-turn on Christmas had “once more shown the yawning gulf between the prime minister’s airy promises and the real world,” said Germany’s Die Welt.

Read more here:

A makeshift lorry car park at Manston airport in Kent is starting to fill up as the travel ban to France continues.

A Kent County Council spokesman said the M20 motorway remains closed coastbound from Junction 7 while Operation Stack continues to manage the thousands of lorries.

The Port of Dover and Eurotunnel are closed due to the suspension of accompanied freight and tourist traffic to France.

All freight wanting to use the Port of Dover or Channel Tunnel should now go to Manston Airport via the M2 and A299.

All non-freight traffic will leave the M20 at J7 to join the A20 and follows the yellow circle diversion route. As a result, Operation Stack remains in place on the M20 between J8 and J12 coastbound.

The M20 is currently closed coastbound from M20 J7, whilst Op Stack is changed to Op Brock with the movable barrier and crossovers being put in place.

Wales has reported another sharp rise in cases, with a further 2,761 people testing positive. It takes the total number of confirmed cases in Wales to 128,089.

Public Health Wales also reported another 24 deaths, taking the total in Wales since the start of the pandemic to 3,149.

Wales was put into lockdown on Sunday with its latest seven-day Covid-19 case rate now at 623 cases per 100,000 people and rising, putting increased strain on the country’s health services.

The WHO is to meet to discuss the new variant, its European chief, Hans Kluge has said

“Limiting travel to contain spread is prudent until we have better info. Supply chains for essential goods & essential travel should remain possible,” Kluge tweeted.

The WHO has cautioned against major alarm, saying the variant is a normal part of a pandemic’s evolution and praising Britain for detecting it.

In a statement, it repeated that there was not yet enough information to determine whether the new variant could affect vaccine efficacy

Here’s video of the chief executive of the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech saying is confident its coronavirus vaccine works against the new UK variant, but that further studies are need to be certain.

It is now “mission impossible” to get millions of pounds worth of Scottish seafood to crucial Spanish food markets tomorrow, the chief executive of Scotland Food and Drink has warned.

In a late morning update, James Withers said that – “contrary to the upbeat assessment from the prime minister” – the situation is worse and deteriorating for food exporters. He added that any protocol for freight movements agreed today will already be too late for most Christmas orders.

For some of our shellfish exporters, the pre-Christmas sales have now been ruined. It looks like mission impossible to get products to the big markets in Spain which are held tomorrow. That is an irrecoverable loss of income and I fear about this being a fatal blow to some of the smaller businesses after the horrendous year they have already had.

With over £6.5m worth of Scottish salmon unlikely to reach the European market before Christmas, producers are now pushing to salvage the New Year market.

Tavish Scott, chief executive of Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation, said:

If negotiations can open the Channel for freight tonight then salmon may still reach markets on Boxing Day for distribution to customers, which would be helpful to meet pre-New Year demand.

As chaos around Dover continues, Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard has added his voice to those calling for an extension to the Brexit process and will be making the argument in Holyrood later this afternoon.

This puts him on the same side as Sadiq Khan and Nicola Sturgeon, but opposed to UK Labour leader Keir Starmer, who yesterday insisted “I don’t want an extension, I want a deal.”

Slovakia’s finance minister, Eduard Heger, has become the latest politician to test positive for Covid, Reuters reports.

He become the sixth Slovak government member infected after Prime Minister Igor Matovic contracted the illness last week.

The finance ministry said Heger would remain in home quarantine. He was not showing symptoms or feeling ill.

Matovic, 47, said last Friday he had tested positive. Four other government members, including the defence minister, have since also tested positive.

Slovakia entered a partial lockdown on Saturday after cases spiked again this month.

Germany has extended its ban to travellers from Britain until 6 January, the health ministry in Berlin has announced, in an attempt to keep a new mutation of the coronavirus at bay.

Planes from South Africa are also banned from flying to Germany, after the discovery of a mutation there.

Plane, ship, train and bus travel are all affected, according to the emergency ruling by the health ministry.

Jens Spahn, the health minister tweeted the ruling on Monday evening. He said the decision was a “cautionary measure” until more is know about the coronavirus mutations which have been reported on in both countries.

On Monday the transport ministry had initially issued a ban on almost all flights from Britain to Germany, until 31 December. A ban on traffic from South Africa was also announced. The extension until January 6, will give authorities more time to investigate the mutations, Spahn said.

It will also put a stop to people coming to Germany to celebrate Christmas and the New Year as after Germans were strongly advised to stay at home.

The German post office announced yesterday that it was no longer accepting parcels destined for the UK as it could not guarantee their passage owing to border controls.

Special permission may be given for flights to Germany to go ahead from the UK, if they are registered with interior ministry authorities three days in advance and pertain to freight transport, repatriation of aircraft, ships, and crew as well as transports of medical personnel or for humanitarian reasons.

Travellers coming to Germany from Britain on Tuesday must produce a negative coronavirus test result immediately on arrival. A test carried out abroad cannot be older than 48 hours, otherwise a new test has to be carried out on arrival in Germany.

Virologist Christian Drosten, Germany’s leading coronavirus specialist, has expressed doubt about Boris Johnson’s claim that the new strain is up to 70% more transmissible.

Boris Johnson and president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, spoke on the phone on Monday in an attempt to reach a last minute Brexit trade deal.

EU member states with the largest fishing fleets are being asked by Von der Leyen’s senior team to rethink their “final offer” after Downing Street made a significant move to break the Brexit deadlock.

France and Denmark are understood to be the most cautious about making a counter-proposal, budging from their current demand that their vessels lose only 25% by value of the fish they catch in British waters.

The European commission president spoke by telephone to Boris Johnson on Monday night to discuss a way forward, with Von der Leyen said by EU sources to be determined to find a landing zone for a deal.

Behind-the-scenes discussions were ongoing on Tuesday morning between the commission president’s most senior aides and the EU capitals most affected by the changes to fishing arrangements brought by Brexit.

Read more here:

China has suspended its visa application service in London, the Chinese embassy in the UK has announced.

In a statement on its website it said:

In accordance with the relevant pandemic prevention advice, the Chinese Visa Application Service Centre in London will suspend its operation from December 22nd, 2020 till further notice.

Meanwhile, India which suspended flights from the UK, has said the new strain of the virus has not yet been detected in India.

V.K. Paul, a senior Covid adviser to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, told Reuters the new virus strain would have no impact on vaccines being developed in India.

India has suspended all flights from Britain starting on Wednesday until the end of the year.

And Hungary has become the latest country to ban air passenger planes from Britain.

The suspension will last until 8 February.

The UK’s transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has reminded lorry drivers that a French travel ban remains in place in Dover.

France is expected to announce a possible solution in the next few hours.

More than 50 EasyJet passengers from Manchester will have to spend Christmas in quarantine in a hotel in Limassol, the Cyprus Mail reports.

Under a Cyprus government decree all travellers arriving from Britain will be taken to quarantine hotels for a seven-day period.

The ministry clarified that the only exception to this rule applies to people under the age of 18, who have the option to either self-isolate at home or at the hotel.

At least two of the 54 passengers will be allowed to self-isolate at home.

Our colleague Kate Connolly in Berlin is listening to a bioNTech press conference as we speak and brings us more detail. This is the latest from her:

The chief executive of the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech has said he is confident its coronavirus vaccine works against the new UK variant, but that further studies are need to be completely sure.

Uğur Şahin told a press conference that his team had been working on trying to find out whether the vaccine works on the UK variant and whether it would be necessary to adapt it. Results would be known within two weeks, he said.

“We don’t know at the moment if our vaccine is also able to provide protection against this new variant,” Şahin said a day after the vaccine was approved for use in the European Union. “But scientifically, it is highly likely that the immune response by this vaccine also can deal with the new virus variants.”

Şahin said that the proteins on the UK variant are 99% the same as on the prevailing strains, and therefore BioNTech has “scientific confidence” that its vaccine will be effective. “We believe there is no reason to be concerned or worried.”

Should the vaccine need to be adjusted for the new variant, the company could do so in about six weeks, said Şahin, though regulators might have to approve the changes before the shots can be used.

BioNTech’s vaccine, developed together with U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer, is authorised for use in more than 45 countries including Britain, the United States and the EU.

The variant, detected mainly in London and the south-east of England in recent weeks, has sparked concern worldwide because of signs that it may spread more easily. While there is no indication it causes more serious illness, numerous countries in Europe and beyond have restricted travel from the UK as a result.

Addressing the current chaos at the borders. BioNTech’s chief business and commercial officer, Sean Marrett, said he did not anticipate problems in getting supplies of the vaccine to the UK. “There are not just routes through the Channel Tunnel,” he said.

Reuters contributed to this report

A total of 2,756 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 11 December mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This is down from 2,835 deaths in the week to 4 December – a fall of 3% – the second week a in row that the number of deaths has decreased.

Nearly a quarter (22.4%) of all deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to 11 December mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate.

We are hearing from increasingly worried Britons who are abroad and trying to get back to the UK. This from reader Chris:

Having a nightmare at the moment with BA, trying to get back from Amsterdam to the UK for Christmas, my flight on 23rd to LHR was cancelled but they seem to have put another one on tomorrow … but warn against taking it? They are a total nightmare and I am stuck between wanting to return home and not spend Christmas alone or having the stress of travelling and not knowing if I can return to the Netherlands! Advice for expats coming home is just so unclear!!!

Here is the current advice from the UK government:

International travel to or from a tier 4 area

If you are in Tier 4, you should not be travelling abroad unless it is permitted. In addition, you should consider the public health advice in the country you are visiting.

If you live outside a tier 4 area you may still transit into or through a tier 4 area to travel abroad if you need to, but you should carefully consider whether you need to do so. In addition, you should follow the public health advice in the country you’re visiting.

If you do need to travel overseas from a tier 4 area (and are legally permitted to do so, for example, because it is for work), even if you are returning to a place you’ve visited before, you should look at the rules in place at your destination and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office