Iran Press/ Europe: France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Bulgaria, and the Netherlands have all said they will halt flights arriving from the UK.
The Czech Republic has imposed stricter quarantine measures for people arriving from Britain.
"The Prime Minister will chair a COBR meeting tomorrow to discuss the situation... in particular the steady flow of freight into and out of the UK," a spokesman for the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office said.
The variant is causing mayhem in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe. Boris Johnson has announced stricter lockdown measures, saying the strain, which goes by the name B.1.1.7, appears to be better at spreading between people.
The news led many Londoners to leave the city today, before the new rules take effect, causing overcrowded railway stations.
The Eurostar train between Brussels and the British capital stopped running Sunday midnight for at least 24 hours.
Saudi Arabia suspended late on Sunday all international commercial flights for a renewable week except for the foreign flights already in the kingdom which will be allowed to leave.
The entry to the kingdom through land and sea ports will be also suspended for a renewable week, and those measures come after the spread of a new strain of COVID-19 among a number of countries, state news agency SPA reported quoting an interior ministry source.
Scientists, meanwhile, are hard at work trying to figure out whether B.1.1.7 is really more adept at human-to-human transmission—not everyone is convinced yet—and if so, why. They’re also wondering how it evolved so fast. B.1.1.7 has acquired 17 mutations all at once, a feat has never seen before.
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