COUNTRIES around the world have banned travellers from the UK with France banning British lorries coming into the country for 48 hours following the discovery of a more infectious mutant coronavirus strain. 

Amid chaos at the port of Dover – which is stopping millions of pounds of Scottish exports reaching their destination – Nicola Sturgeon will attend the UK Government’s Cobra civil contingencies committee later today.

France last night shut its ports to UK freight and joined Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Israel and El Salvador in banning all flights carrying passengers from the UK.

French Transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari has since said that a protocol would be adopted at a European Union-wide level "to ensure that movement from the UK can resume".

Last night Loch Fyne Seafarms, based in Tarbert, tweeted: “This is a disaster, trucks loaded with hundreds of thousands of pounds heading to Dover right now. What the hell are we meant to do?”

Turkey and Morocco have announced they will be suspending air travel from the UK, while the official Saudi Press Agency reports Saudi Arabia is also suspending international flights for one week.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon calls for Brexit to be delayed as Covid-19 variant sparks chaos

Kuwait also announced a ban on Sunday on passenger flights from Britain over the new strain of the virus.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said from midnight Sunday, Canada was putting a 72-hour stop on flights from the UK.

The Eurotunnel Le Shuttle last night announced that the UK-France border will close from 11pm and the last shuttle between the UK and France is at 9.24pm with access to the UK prohibited from 10pm.

The National:

Lorries parked on the M20 near Folkestone in Kent today

It comes as the Eurostar has also cancelled its trains between London, Brussels in Belgium and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, starting from today.

US authorities are looking "very carefully" into the virus variant spreading in the United Kingdom, top health officials said Sunday, while indicating that a ban on UK travel was not currently in the cards.

Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor to the government's Operation Warp Speed vaccine program, told CNN's 'State of the Union' that US officials 'don't know yet' if the variant is present in the country.

"We are, of course... looking very carefully into this," including at the National Institutes of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," he said.

Eurostar stated on its website: "Due to announcements from the French and Belgian governments that borders with the UK will close at midnight on Sunday 20th December, we are unable to run any trains from London to Paris, Brussels, Lille or Amsterdam on either Monday 21st December or Tuesday 22nd December.

"We are also unable to run trains from Amsterdam, Brussels and Lille to London on these dates. We can confirm that our trains will continue to operate from Paris to London.

"The plan is to resume all our train services to and from the UK on Wednesday 23rd December."

The travel restrictions come after southern England was plunged into a Tier 4 lockdown in a bid to suppress a 'mutant' strain of coronavirus which scientists believe is 70% more infectious than previous strains of the virus.

The Netherlands was the first country to announce a travel ban, which will remain in place until January 1, its government said in a statement early yesterday.

France's Prime Minister Jean Castex tweeted last night: "All flows of people from the United Kingdom to France are suspended from midnight tonight, for 48 hours, and for all means of transport."

Ireland has imposed a 48-hour travel ban on non-essential flights from Britain from midnight which includes passengers on flights and ferries.

However there will be no ban or travel restrictions for passengers travelling between the Republic and Northern Ireland.

The rules are to be reviewed during tomorrow's meeting of the Irish Cabinet but it is understood they will be extended beyond then.

Ireland's Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said ferries will continue to operate for freight and added: "We have to do this because the UK Government themselves has put in place very strict restrictions on movements.

"This new strain of coronavirus, which they have identified, seems to have a much higher transmission rate."

Germany announced all UK flights, with the exception of cargo flights, would no longer be allowed to land in the country.

The ban is reportedly set to remain in place until at least December 31, according to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency, also called a special crisis meeting today to co-ordinate the response to the virus news among the bloc's 27 member states.

The Dutch government added that it is monitoring developments and is considering additional measures regarding other modes of transport.

Belgium has suspended flight and train arrivals from Britain from midnight last night for 24 hours.

Italy's health minister Roberto Speranza said an order was signed yesterday blocking flights from Britain and preventing anyone who had been to the UK in the last 14 days from entering Italy. The order bans plane travel until January 6. 

Meanwhile El Salvador has banned travellers who have been in the UK or South Africa in the last 30 days or whose flights included a layover those countries.

Operation Stack is being implemented on the coastbound carriageway of the M20 between Junctions 9 and 11, Kent Police said at midnight.

The force said it was "a contingency measure following the French government's announcement it will not accept any passengers arriving from the UK for the next 48 hours, and the subsequent closures of the Port of Dover and Channel Tunnel".

Meanwhile, Operation Stack is underway to try and to prevent a gridlock across the roads network in Kent with parts of the M20 used to queue lorries travelling towards the continent.

The UK Department for Transport (DfT) said Manston Airport is being prepared to accommodate "up to 4000 lorries" as a measure to ease congestion in Kent in the wake of the France travel ban.

However due to the expected level of disruption, DfT also advised hauliers to avoid travel to Kent ports "until further notice".

The chief executive of the Road Haulage Association (RHA), Richard Burnett, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the situation may put off EU hauliers bringing in supplies to the UK.

He said: "The concern that we do have though is that with it being so close to Christmas we're looking at 48 hours at this point in time in terms of the restrictions, we're likely to see Operation Stack building in terms of numbers of vehicles on the UK side and that might be a deterrent for EU hauliers to want to come so close to Christmas and end up being stranded here, that's part of the challenge that we're facing today."

Meanwhile, UK transport secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News today the disruption around the Channel ports in Kent "won't have an impact" on the vaccine supply.

He said: "Most vaccine doesn't come via what is called 'Ro-Ro', roll-on, roll-off, which is what we are talking about here.

"In other words, it's not usually accompanied by a driver, by a haulier. It comes on those containers.

"To put this into context, there are about 6,000 vehicles we would expect, just under in Dover today, probably 4,000 would have gone across from Dover, just under about 2,000 on the Eurotunnel.

"But there is probably something like 32,000 units that would have been the daily total, so the vast majority - including virtually all the vaccine - actually comes via container and there are good supplies in the meantime.

"So this won't have an impact on the vaccination programme."

The general manager of trade group Logistics UK, formerly the Freight Transport Association, urged the public not to panic-buy.

Alex Veitch said the UK Government needs to work with EU partners to come up with a pragmatic solution to give the French and other authorities confidence that drivers are Covid-free.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said the ban is only affecting outbound freight with drivers in a truck, and that inbound goods are still moving.

He said: "This is why we are saying at the current time, please, there is no need to panic-buy, there are goods available in the shops, retailers are doing everything they can.

"But at the same time it is serious and we do need a resolution as quickly as possible."