WHO tries to temper alarm over mutated coronavirus strain
- Dozens of countries around the world have imposed travel bans on Britain
- World Health Organization said the new virus strain is controllable
Europe scrambled to thrash out a coordinated response to a mutant strain of the coronavirus which has prompted an international suspension of travel links with the UK, while the United States saw its own caseload top 18 million.
With travellers in Europe facing a nightmare holiday season, EU ambassadors were to meet on Tuesday to try to nail down a unified approach and work out how to eventually lift the border restrictions with Britain - including by imposing a requirement for tests on all arrivals.
More than two dozen countries from India to Argentina suspended flight from the UK, offering a bleak reminder that the pandemic is far from over.
The World Health Organization’s emergencies chief Michael Ryan tried to temper the alarm by stressing the situation was not “out of control”, shortly after a British minister used those exact words to describe the new spread of the new variant.
“We have had a much higher (contamination rate) at different points in this pandemic and we’ve got it under control,” WHO’s emergencies chief Michael Ryan told a press conference.
“So this situation is not in that sense out of control. But it cannot be left to its own devices.”