LONDON – It was another reminder, delivered before dawn on Christmas morning, that Britain is not just an island nation, but that it finds itself more and more alone.
The United States’ decision to require all airline passengers arriving from Britain to report negative results for the coronavirus within 72 hours of their departure, starting on Monday, was not so much of a shock as one more bitter pill in a bleak holiday season.
There is a rapid spread of a variant of the coronavirus that fears it will be more contagious. Dozens of nations have barred travelers from Britain. The expanded blockades in the country will include 48 million people by Saturday. And thousands of trucks remain stuck along the coast of England, even after France lifted a brief border block imposed by virus issues.
Adding to the volatility was a last-minute Brexit deal with the European Union, which prevented Britain from leaving the bloc without a deal in place, but was at the same time a painful reminder of a decision that divided the country .
Then there was the holiday message from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which warned against “making out under the mistletoe”.
While a refrain from Brexit supporters was that they were driven by the desire for Britain to “take back control”, the nation’s immediate fate is being shaped by forces beyond the control of any individual – and perhaps nothing more than that. coronavirus.
The rapid spread of the virus variant – which government statistics indicate accounts for half of all cases currently in England – led to the blockade of London and southern England this week. As of Saturday, it will include an even wider range of the country, and a national block has not been ruled out.
“I know it has been very, very difficult in the past few weeks and, I must tell people, it will continue to be difficult,” said Johnson on Thursday.
Many countries already require a negative coronavirus test for entry, and the new U.S. restrictions are less stringent than the nearly total bans that nearly 50 nations have imposed on travelers from Britain. But with the country normally serving as a connecting hub for passengers traveling between Europe and the United States, it was yet another blow to its airlines, which reduced flight after flight while governments suspended travel.
The usual flood of traffic between the United States and Britain had already suffered an abrupt decline. More than 4.8 million British residents visited the United States in 2019, according to the Office of National Statistics.
And while in February Heathrow attributed more than a million passengers to the North American market, the number has since plummeted, falling to 81,713 last month, according to data compiled by the airport.
Britain’s Foreign Affairs offices updated their travel advice on Friday to include the new test requirement. Those wishing to travel will have to provide the result of a PCR test – which must be sent to a laboratory and can take several days to be processed – or the rapid antigen test, a relatively new tool that gives the result in about 30 minutes.
With many private clinics and laboratories closed for Christmas on Friday, testing within the 72-hour window can be difficult for anyone looking to travel immediately after the holiday. Price can also be a factor: Heathrow Airport charges about $ 130 for PCR results in 48 hours and about $ 60 for antigen tests with results in 45 minutes, and private clinics charge even more for both the tests.
Both tests are offered at many major British airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester Airport and London Luton. But as passengers need to register in advance for tests, it was unclear how many would be able to make one – and then get a result – in time.
Non-essential travel will also be banned in much of Britain from Saturday.
Despite the restrictions, there is concern that the variant, which more and more scientific evidence indicates is more contagious, is probably spreading much more widely than was previously known. And because few countries employ the level of genomic surveillance that Britain does, it could have spread undetected for weeks.
A woman who flew to Germany on Sunday – hours before the country banned travel – tested positive for the variant, German health officials said on Thursday. It was the first case identified in the country, but as the variant has been spreading since at least September, experts said it was probably not the first case there.
Singapore also announced that it detected a case on Thursday.
And Denmark, which has broader genomic surveillance than many other countries, detected 33 cases of the variant between November 14 and December 14, according to Danish health officials.
Concern over the variant that led to the travel ban also led France to block the English Channel for 48 hours. Although the order was lifted on Wednesday, a subsequent effort to test thousands of drivers for the presence of the virus as a condition of entering France proved to be a logistical nightmare.
As of Thursday, transport secretary Grant Shapps said that of the 2,367 drivers tested, three were positive. Thousands more have yet to be tested, and the British military has sent an additional 800 soldiers to help the 300 already there and help the health workers who conduct the tests.
As the concern deepened in drivers’ nations, including Poland, that country’s defense minister said in a tweet that a team of soldiers would be sent to England to help bring citizens home.
For an exhausted and exasperated British audience, the usual holiday entertainment was hard to find.
Even the Queen’s annual Christmas address became the subject of controversy when a national broadcaster, Channel 4, used the holiday to offer a “warning” about the dangers of “deeply false” videos, featuring a fake five-minute version of the speech.
In it, the false queen regrets the departure of Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, to the United States and alludes to the Duke of York’s decision to relinquish royal duties this year after giving an interview to the BBC about his connection with the sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The BBC’s real correspondent, Nicholas Witchell, was not impressed.
“There were countless imitations of the queen,” he said. “This is not a particularly good one.”