Coronavirus: UK bans all travel to and from Denmark after mink outbreak
The government has announced a total ban on travel to and from Denmark following concern over a new strain of coronavirus in the country’s mink farms.
Denmark has announced strict new lockdown rules and a nationwide mink cull after authorities discovered a mutated coronavirus strain in the animals.
The UK last night initially responded by enforcing a two-week quarantine on all arrivals to Britain from Denmark.
However, transport secretary Grant Shapps today beefed up the UK’s response to the outbreak, announcing a total ban on arrivals from Denmark, with the exception of hauliers and freight.
The new measures came into effect as of 4am this morning, and will be reviewed after a week.
The Department for Transport said the decision came after further information from Danish health authorities that the variant coronavirus strain had spread to local communities.
“Visitors arriving into the UK from Denmark will not be permitted entry into the UK,” Shapps said on Twitter.
“This decision to act quickly follows on from health authorities in Denmark reporting widespread outbreaks of coronavirus in mink farms.”
A spokeswoman from the Department for Transport said: “Unlike other travel to the UK, there will be no exemptions to this quarantine policy.
“The UK government is working closely with international partners to understand the changes in the virus that have been reported in Denmark and we are conducting a programme of further research here in the UK to inform our risk assessments.”
Chief medical officer Chris Whitty is understood to be particularly concerned by the latest developments in Denmark, over fears the mutant coronavirus strain could prove resistant to several vaccines being developed.
Danish ministers have insisted they are acting with an “abundance of caution” by imposing strict lockdown measures in the country’s northern Jutland region. It has also ordered the cull 17m mink on its commercial fur farms.