LONDON – It was another reminder, delivered before dawn on Christmas morning, that Britain is not just an island nation but is increasingly alone.
The United States’ decision to oblige all passengers arriving from the UK to test negative for the coronavirus within 72 hours of flight departure starting Monday was less of a shock than another bitter pill in a gloomy holiday season.
There’s the rapid spread of a variant of the coronavirus that is feared to be more contagious. Dozens of nations have banned travelers from the UK from entering the country. The extended lockdowns in the country will hit 48 million people by Saturday. And thousands of trucks remain stranded on the English coast, even after France lifts a brief border blockade imposed because of virus problems.
Adding to the volatility was a short-term Brexit deal with the European Union, which kept the UK from stepping out of the bloc without a deal but was a painful reminder of a decision that divided the country.
Then there was the Christmas message from Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning against “snogging under mistletoe”.
Although Brexit supporters refrained from being driven by a desire for Britain to “regain control”, the nation’s immediate fate is being shaped by forces beyond the control of any individual – and perhaps no more than the coronavirus .
The rapid spread of the virus variant, which accounts for half of all cases in England according to government statistics, led to the lockdown of London and southern England this week. As of Saturday, it will encompass an even larger part of the country, and a national lockdown hasn’t been ruled out.
“I know it’s been very, very difficult the past few weeks and I have to tell people that it will continue to be difficult,” Johnson said on Thursday.
Many countries already require a negative coronavirus test to enter the country, and the new U.S. restrictions are less stringent than the near-total bans that some 50 nations have placed on travelers from the UK. With the country typically serving as a junction for passengers traveling between Europe and the US, it was another blow to the ailing airlines that cut flight after flight as governments suspended travel.
The usual flood of traffic between the USA and Great Britain had already decreased significantly. According to the Office of National Statistics, more than 4.8 million UK residents visited the United States in 2019.
And while Heathrow Airport posted more than a million passengers to the North American market in February, that number has since fallen to 81,713 last month, according to the airport.
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Offices updated their travel advice on Friday to include the new testing requirement. Those who want to travel must either present the result of a PCR test, which must be sent to a laboratory and which can take several days to process, or the rapid antigen test, a relatively new tool that gives a result in around 30 minutes.
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Apr. 25, 2020 at 6:54 am ET
With many private clinics and laboratories closed on Friday at Christmas, those who want to travel immediately after the vacation can find it difficult to test within the 72-hour window. Price can also be a factor. Heathrow Airport charges around USD 130 for 48 hour PCR results and around USD 60 for PCR results for antigen tests with results within 45 minutes. Private clinics charge even more for both tests.
Both tests are offered at many major UK airports including Gatwick, Manchester and London Luton and Heathrow. However, with passengers having to register for tests in advance, it was unclear how many could get one in time and then get a result.
Non-essential travel will also be banned across much of the UK from Saturday.
Despite the limitations, there is concern that the variant, which according to increasing scientific knowledge is more contagious, is likely to be far more widespread than previously known. And because few countries are using the level of genomic surveillance that the UK does, it could have been spreading undetected for weeks.
A woman who flew to Germany on Sunday – hours before the country introduced its travel ban – tested the variant positive, German health authorities announced on Thursday. It was the first case identified in the country, but since the variant has been spreading since at least September, experts said it was likely not the first case there.
Singapore also announced it discovered a case on Thursday.
And Denmark, which has more extensive genomic surveillance than many other countries, discovered 33 cases of the variant between November 14th and December 14th, according to the Danish health authorities.
Concerns about the variant that resulted in travel bans also led France to block the English Channel for 48 hours. Although that order was lifted on Wednesday, a later attempt to test thousands of drivers for the virus to enter France has proven to be a logistical nightmare.
As of Thursday, Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps said that of the 2,367 drivers tested, three were positive. Thousands more remain to be tested. The British military has deployed an additional 800 soldiers to assist the 300 existing soldiers in carrying out the screenings.
As concerns increased in drivers’ home countries, including Poland, the country’s defense minister said in a tweet that a team of soldiers would be sent to England to take the citizens home.
For a weary and angry British audience, the usual holiday season pleasures were hard to come by.
Even the Queen’s annual Christmas speech was controversial when a national broadcaster, Channel 4, used the holiday to warn of the dangers of “deep fake” videos with a five-minute fake version of the address.
In it, the fake queen laments the departure of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan to the United States and alludes to the Duke of York’s decision to step down from royal duties this year after giving the BBC an interview about his connection to the United States Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The BBC’s royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell was not impressed.
“There have been innumerable imitations of the queen,” he said. “That’s not very good.”
The real Queen Elizabeth II was separated from most of her family on Friday and spent Christmas at Windsor Castle with her husband, Prince Philip, rather than Sandringham as is her usual tradition.
When she turned to the nation, she offered a historical perspective, citing the example of Florence Nightingale, who was born two centuries ago this year.
“Florence Nightingale shone a lamp of hope all over the world,” said the Queen. “Our frontline services still shine for us today – supported by the amazing achievements of modern science – and we are indebted to them. We continue to be inspired by the kindness of strangers and comfort ourselves that even on the darkest of nights there is hope in the new dawn. “
