super-infectious Covid strain is probably already in the US and could even have started in America....

[r2d2]

The new strain - feared to be 70 per cent more transmissible and to spread more easily among children - has led to calls for the US to impose a travel ban on Britain, as dozens of countries including Canada have already done. 

But Scott Gottlieb, a former head of the FDA, told CNBC that the new strain 'is already in the US' and that a travel ban would not keep it out. 'As the virus continues to spread around the world, we're going to start to see more of these variants,' he warned.    

Dr Anthony Fauci said the strain 'very well might be here for all we know', while New York governor Andrew Cuomo also said he believed it had reached the US.  

Jeremy Luban, a University of Massachusetts virologist, told the Washington Post that the new strain 'may have even started here' - suggesting it might have been detected in Britain first because the UK has a genome sequencing program hailed as the 'best in the world' compared to the 'sporadic' one in the US.  

A scientist on the UK's advisory panel, Calum Semple, warned on Monday that the new mutation was likely to become the dominant strain around the world - predicting that it would 'out-compete' other forms of the virus.  

[Kool_SRG]

Most probably all international could be stopped in India again.. From UK stopped for 2 weeks. 

[r2d2]

13 minutes ago, Kool_SRG said:

all international could be stopped in India again

??? didn't see it anywhere... insider info from @NiranjanGaaru ?

[Kool_SRG]

30 minutes ago, r2d2 said:

??? didn't see it anywhere... insider info from @NiranjanGaaru ?

If the spread becomes more I mean they have already asked flights from UK to be stopped... 

[Kool_SRG]

@r2d2

 

 

Explained: Why India has suspended flights from the UK

India bans flights from UK: According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the government has decided that all flights originating from the UK to India will be suspended from 11.59 pm December 22 till 11.59 pm on December 31.

 

India has joined over two dozen countries in banning inbound travel from the UK, where a mutated strain of novel coronavirus — reportedly 70% more infectious than the one that caused the Covid-19 pandemic — is rapidly spreading.

Which flights have been suspended?

According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the government has decided that all flights originating from the UK to India will be suspended from 11.59 pm December 22 till 11.59 pm on December 31. Consequently, flights from India to the UK will also stand suspended during the period. India and the UK were connected by several airlines including Air India, Vistara, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic connecting London to Indian airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Amritsar. While regular scheduled international flights are still not allowed by authorities here, India and the UK had entered an air bubble arrangement.

 

What happens to passengers arriving into India on transit flights?

 

The government has said that as a measure of abundant precaution, passengers arriving from the UK in all transit flights — those that have taken off or flights which are reaching India before 11.59 pm on December 22 — should be subject to mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival at the respective airports.

Which other countries have banned flights from the UK?

Several major European countries, including Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, in addition to countries like Canada, Kuwait, Colombia, Morocco, Iran, Israel and Turkey, have restricted their travel ties with the UK. Saudi Arabia, notably, has suspended all international flights over the fear of the new strain of coronavirus.

In few of these jurisdictions though, only passenger flights have been suspended and cargo flights continue to operate.