An increasing number of European countries have moved to restrict travel from Britain in an attempt to keep a more contagious strain of the coronavirus from spreading past England’s borders.

France suspended freight transit across the English Channel for 48 hours, leaving thousands of truck drivers stuck in their vehicles on Monday as traffic leading to England’s ports came to a standstill.

European Union leaders are set to meet on Monday to draw up a “common doctrine” for handling the threat posed by the new variant, which officials say is 70 percent more contagious than other strains of the virus.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly plans to call a meeting of the government’s emergency committee.

French transportation minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said in a tweet on Monday that France was working to “set up a robust health protocol” to allow traffic leaving Britain to continue, though such a solution remains up in the air.

Hours after Johnson announced stricter lockdown restrictions in the U.K. to prevent further spread of the new strain, a number of countries restricted travel from Britain, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Ireland Italy …continued .
[Source: CNBC News]