Germany and Sweden added to travel quarantine ‘red list’

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Britons in Denmark were given just three hours to fly home and avoid 14 days quarantine after the Government removed the travel corridor in a 1.30am tweet. 

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced in the early hours of this morning the Scandinavian country would be stripped of its quarantine-free status at 4am.

He took the ‘urgent decision’ after a new strain of coronavirus was found to be spreading from minks to humans in Denmark. 

Mr Shapps tweeted: ‘I’ve taken the urgent decision tonight to remove DENMARK from the travel corridor list immediately given developments. 

‘Passengers arriving into the UK from DENMARK from 4am on 6 November 2020 will need to self-isolate for 14 days.’ 

In other coronavirus news:

• Pubs, restaurants, gyms and non-essential shops were empty yesterday as people in England saw out their first day of a new lockdown;
• An official prediction that coronavirus deaths would soon pass those registered in the first wave has been quietly corrected by the government;
• Ofqual said that GCSE and A-Level grade boundaries should be lowered because of disruption to education caused by the pandemic;
• The UK announced 24,141 new coronavirus cases, down 4 per cent on last week;
• Students at Manchester University ripped down fences erected around their halls. 

Denmark has locked down wide areas and is planning to cull the country’s 17 million minks after discovering the rapidly spreading coronavirus mutation. 

International travel is restricted during the England-wide four-week shutdown as the the Government urges the nation to stay at home as much as possible.  

But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is sticking with the so-called ‘travel corridors’ policy.

As the virus resurges across Europe, more countries are being taken off the list, although usually not as suddenly as the three-hour deadline as applied to Denmark.

Yesterday Mr Shapps announced people returning from Germany and Sweden and now Denmark will have to self-isolate for 14 days after 4am Saturday.

Mr Shapps reminded people that travel outside the home is ‘not permitted’ during lockdown except for ‘a limited number of reasons including work or education’.

In his first tweet on he subject yesterday, he wrote: ‘In line with the new COVID-19 guidance, travel outside of home, with the exception of a limited number of reasons including work or education, is not permitted during lockdown. 

‘#TRAVELCORRIDORS do remain critical to the Government’s COVID-19 response, keeping imported cases DOWN.

‘We are removing SWEDEN and GERMANY from the Travel Corridor list. 

‘From 4am Saturday 7th November, if you arrive into the UK from these destinations you will need to self-isolate. 

‘All arriving passengers should complete a passenger locator form on arrival.’ 

Germany’s seven-day rate of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people reached 140 after nearly 20,000 cases were reported on Wednesday. 

The rate for Sweden is 190 per 100,000, according to analysis of data collected by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. 

The Government had originally been using a threshold of 20 cases per 100,000 to trigger a review of whether a country should be added to the ‘red list’. 

It is though that ministers are now using a rate of 100 cases per 100,000 to guide decision-making as Europe experiences a surge in infection. 

The UK currently has a coronavirus infection rate of approximately 235 cases per 100,000 people. 

The Government remains under intense pressure to reduce the 14-day self-isolation period.  

Mr Shapps has launched a task force to develop methods of reducing quarantine for people arriving from non-exempt locations.

He said the Government was considering a ‘test and release regime’ which would still involve a quarantine period of at least a week.  

Danish towns are put in lockdown following outbreak of mutated coronavirus that has spread to humans from minks

By Rachael Bunyan For Mailonline

A series of Danish towns are in lockdown after an outbreak of a mutated form of coronavirus spread from minks to humans.

Danish authorities have asked residents in the North Jutland region not to leave their home municipalities amid growing fears over the spread of the deadly virus.

It comes as the national government announced it will cull its mink population of up to 17 million in an effort to minimise the risk of them re-transmitting the new version of coronavirus to humans.

The mutation has now been found in 12 people in the North Jutland region, according to a government agency report that maps the coronavirus in Denmark.

Seven municipalities where there are confirmed coronavirus cases in mink are now to be locked down with residents told to remain within their local areas. 

‘We have to stop movement of residents across municipal borders. We need to find a model for this,’ Per Bach Laursen, the mayor of the Vesthimmerland municipality, told Politiken. 

Restaurants, cafes, sports and cultural activities are to be shut for the next four weeks whilst schools and day care facilities will remain open, the mayor said.

Speaking about the need for widespread coronavirus testing in the region, Laursen said: ‘The next thing we need to get started on is a massive testing of our citizens.

‘I hope that something will be done there so that we can fulfill that wish. There will be a task force that will take care of the situation so that we can get help from various ministries.’

He continued: ‘Until a few days ago, we were low on the [number of] infections, but then it suddenly went completely wild.

‘It will be a dark time.’   

The lockdown comes as the nation’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Wednesday that the mutated virus in farmed minks could have ‘devastating consequences worldwide’ and action to cull the population was ‘necessary’. 

Frederiksen told a press conference: ‘We have a great responsibility towards our own population, but with the mutation that has now been found, we have an even greater responsibility for the rest of the world as well.’ 

‘The mutated virus in mink may pose a risk to the effectiveness of a future vaccine,’ the Prime Minister said, adding that it ‘risks being spread from Denmark to other countries.’ 

Denmark is one of the world’s main mink fur exporters, producing an estimated 17 million furs per year.