Canada Locks-Out UK Visitors

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Twitter late on December 20, 2020, 'At midnight tonight, and for the next 72 hours, all flights from the United Kingdom (UK) will be prohibited from entering Canada. Passengers who arrived today are subject to secondary screening, enhanced measures, and increased scrutiny of quarantine plans. Passengers who arrived recently from the UK will also receive additional direction from the Government of Canada.'

The Government of Canada is closely monitoring the genetic variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 identified in the United Kingdom and is working with international partners, including the World Health Organization, to understand better this variant and its impacts, stated a press release.

The N501Y mutation within the new B.1.1.7 lineage, part of the 20B/GR SARS-COV-2 clade, was previously defined in a EuroSurveillance paper published on August 13, 2020. This paper suggested 'Implementing real-time genomic surveillance at the European level could further elucidate differences in circulating strains between countries and enhance the understanding of how response measures, and later vaccines and antiviral drugs, affect the proportion of genetic variants.'