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Covid-19: borders closed, stock markets falling ... faced with the mutation of the virus, the world is worried

2020-12-21T21:28:38.088Z


The appearance in the United Kingdom of a mutant strain of the coronavirus, presented as more contagious, arouses mistrust of many countries in t


While the vaccination against Covid-19 has just started in the United Kingdom, the country is affected by the appearance of a new strain of the virus.

This mutation is "out of control" in the United Kingdom, alarmed the British Minister for Health, Matt Hancock on Sunday.

This is how he justified the re-containment of London and part of England.

A measure which could, according to him, last until the massive deployment of a vaccine.

The head of government of Boris Johnson evoked, for his part, a higher contagiousness of 70%.

VIDEO.

Covid-19 in the United Kingdom: London and the south-east reconfigured from Sunday

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) wanted to qualify the remarks of the British leaders.

“We had an R0 (virus reproduction rate, Editor's note) much higher than 1.5 at different times during this pandemic and we have controlled it.

This situation is not, in this sense, out of control, ”assured the person in charge of health emergencies at the WHO, Michael Ryan, at a press conference.

American experts have also started to study this new mutation, but they are not, for the moment, convinced that it is more contagious than the others, indicated on Monday a senior American official.

“There is no hard evidence that this virus is indeed more contagious, (but) there is clear evidence that it is more widespread in the population,” said senior government immunization program adviser Moncef Slaoui, during a press conference.

Suspended air links

This has not prevented many European countries from suspending their air links with the United Kingdom as a precautionary measure.

Ireland, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Russia… the list of countries which have banned arrivals of British travelers is long.

Internationally, Iran, Canada and Argentina have followed suit with European countries.

France, for its part, has suspended since Sunday midnight and for 48 hours all travel of people from British soil, "including related to the transport of goods, by road, air, sea or rail".

The Defense Council met this Monday evening at 7 p.m., according to our information, to discuss European cooperation on border management in the United Kingdom.

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Delays in UK supplies

In the United Kingdom, the entire supply chain of the country, very dependent on truck rotations across the Channel for fresh produce, is in turmoil.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was reassuring, however, indicating on Monday that the UK's supply chains were "strong and robust".

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"The delays only affect a very small proportion of food entering the UK and as UK supermarket chains have said, the supply chains are strong and robust," Boris Johnson told reporters.

He said he discussed the situation with French President Emmanuel Macron who, according to him, said he wanted to "resolve the situation in the coming hours".

The stock markets are shaking

The world stock markets also unscrewed on Monday because of fears related to this new mutation of the Covid-19.

In Europe, the Paris Bourse plunged 2.43% to 5,393.34 points at the close, its biggest drop in nearly two months.

Frankfurt dropped 2.82% and Milan 2.57%.

The London Stock Exchange resisted better, falling 1.73% because the simultaneous fall of 1.29% of the pound against the dollar advantage the accounts of multinational exporters, very represented in the index.

At mid-session on Wall Street, the three major indices were showing more resistance: the Dow Jones index was down 0.50%, the Nasdaq 0.95%, and the S&P 500 1.11%.

Oil plunged 4.54% to 49.99 dollars for Brent, the European benchmark, and 4.15% to 47.06 dollars for the US WTI.

The European country most affected by the epidemic

The UK is the hardest-hit European country along with Italy, with more than 66,500 dead.

After the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the British Medicines Agency (MHRA) is expected to approve, on December 28 or 29, a second vaccine, the one developed by the AstraZeneca laboratory with the University of Oxford, according to

The Telegraph

newspaper

.

For the moment, the American experts who have studied the variant strain of the virus estimate that the probability that the antibodies produced by the vaccines are less effective against this mutation is "very low".

"But it is impossible to exclude that one day, somewhere, a virus manages to escape the protective response caused by the vaccine, which is why we must remain vigilant," they warned, however.

Source: leparis

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