Spain became the latest EU country to ban flights from the EU today, with every member of the bloc now having slammed their doors shut to British travellers apart from Greece and Cyprus.
Urgent talks are underway in Brussels this morning to agree an EU-wide response to contain the new mutant strain - with the requirement for Britons to prove they are coronavirus free before flying among the options being discussed.
Spain had wanted a unanimous European decision on restrictions, but no agreement was reached by last night, prompting Madrid to act alone. It will still allow its own citizens to return home, as will Portugal and Hungary.
France is leading attempts to reach a unanimous agreement among the bloc's 27 members to avoid individual countries adopting their own unilateral restrictions, but reports suggest the latter is currently the most likely outcome.
Emanuel Macron was the first EU leader to ban travellers from the UK on Sunday, putting in place a 48-hour embargo on all travel. This included freight lorries at Dover, causing disruption to cross-Channel trade - including fresh food supplies.
Other EU countries quickly halted UK flights, as data suggested the new variant could be 70% more infectious. Dozens of countries around the world followed Europe's lead - but the US is allowing British visitors with a negative Covid test.
People queue to enter the departures area at Heathrow Airport in chaotic scenes yesterday
Which countries have banned flights from the UK?
EU
All flights from UK banned -
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden.
UK travellers allowed with a negative test -
Cyprus, Greece.
Still allowing own nationals to enter -
Greece, Portugal, Spain.
REST OF EUROPE
All flights from UK banned -
Norway, Switzerland, Turkey,
REST OF THE WORLD
All flights from UK banned -
Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Iran, Jamaica, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan.
UK travellers allowed with a negative test -
Liberia, US.
The EU Commission is expected to announce the outcome of its talks today, but it is likely that no united solution will be reached and each member state will continue deciding their own restrictions, the BBC reported, citing official sources.
'It's important that a halt to entries or a flight ban can't be circumvented via other European Union member countries,' German foreign minister Heiko Maas told journalists yesterday.
Dozens of countries outside Europe have also blocked flights from Britain, including Canada, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and Argentina.
Hundreds of flights from UK airports were grounded today, with a spokesman for Heathrow telling MailOnline that only passengers with a ticket to a destination that has not yet banned UK arrivals will be allowed in the airport.
Countries reacted after Mr Johnson announced on Saturday that the new variant was up to 70 per cent more transmissible than the original strain as he put London and parts of the South East and East of England into a two-week Christmas lockdown, with nearly 18 million people in a new Tier 4.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock admitted the new variant coronavirus was 'out of control' and said the new restrictions may have to remain in place for months.
Concerns about the rapid spread of the disease were underlined with the publication of the latest official figures showing there had been a further 35,928 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Sunday.
Millions of people have been forced to tear up their festive plans, with Mr Johnson effectively cancelling Christmas for those in Tier 4.
Heathrow was seen descending into chaos last night as hundreds of passengers scrambled onto the last flight to Dublin minutes before a Covid-19 travel ban set in at midnight to nations across Europe including Ireland.
Large queues of people trying to travel to the EU yesterday as travel bans came into force
Passengers at London's Heathrow Airport attempted to make the last flight to Dublin last night before the Covid-19 travel ban
PCR vs Lateral flow: More chaos as Britain and France clash over type of testing used for truckers
The French government is demanding that any travellers from the UK, including truckers, take PCR tests before arriving in the country, which can take up to three days to return a result.
A PCR test can cost upwards of £180 per person, with the swab needing to be processed in a lab.
The UK, on the other hand, favours faster tests which are not lab based and give a result within 15 minutes.
These rapid coronavirus tests, known as lateral flow tests, are ones that can be done on the spot using portable equipment.
They are faster and cheaper than lab-based PCR tests, which the government uses to diagnose people, but are less accurate.
In a lateral flow test a swab is used to get a sample from the person's nose or throat and it is then processed in a small machine that tries to detect the coronavirus by mixing the sample with something the virus would react with.
If there is a reaction in the mixture it suggests that the person is carrying coronavirus. If not, they get a negative result. This process can be completed in as little as 15 minutes.
You take your own swab though a professional on site processes it through the machine.
However, as the swabs are taken by people themselves, the accuracy of the test could be hampered as they may not push the swab deep enough to get enough of a sample.
These lateral flow tests differ from the gold standard PCR test - known scientifically as polymerase chain reaction testing.
PCR tests also use a swab but this is then processed using high-tech laboratory equipment to analyse the genetic sequence of the sample to see if any of it matches the genes of coronavirus.
This is a much more long-winded and expensive process, involving multiple types of trained staff, and the analysis process can take hours, with the whole process from swab to someone receiving their result taking days.
It is significantly more accurate, however. In ideal conditions the tests are almost 100 per cent accurate at spotting the virus, although this may be more like 70 per cent in the real world.
This compares to a much lower sensitivity in lateral flow tests, with a trial of one type used in Liverpool suggesting they miss around 50 per cent of the people who would test positive with PCR.
Extreme accuracy may be a drawback for PCR now that so many people have been infected, however, with the tests able to detect shreds of the virus in people who recovered weeks ago and are no longer infectious, which may lead them to have to self-isolate unnecessarily.
Lateral flow tests are more likely to miss people who are carrying the virus but, experts say, do have value as a way of weeding out people carrying large amounts of the virus and therefore most likely to be spreading the disease.
Crowds of people had packed into Terminal 5 to await updates of a reportedly overbooked British Airways flight, operated by Aer Lingus, which was scheduled to take off at 8.55pm to Dublin.
Passenger Rachael Scully, 23, tweeted that the Irish Government eventually gave the 'green light' for the flight which was set to leave at 10:30pm and due to land with 15 minutes to spare before the travel ban at midnight.
She wrote: 'Irish gov have given the green light and we've been processed for a BA flight. Due to land at 23:45. Woops of joy once the news got out. A Christmas miracle!'
Ireland announced its temporary 48-hour travel ban on non-essential flights from Britain which came into force at midnight and includes passengers on flights and ferries.
A British Airways spokesman told MailOnline: 'Our teams looked after customers while we urgently looked into alternative arrangements to get them on their way to Dublin as quickly as possible.'
However some Irish people tweeted the stranded Heathrow passengers to urge them to stay put following the discovery of the '70 per cent more infectious' mutant coronavirus strain which plunged London and the south east into Tier Four.
One commented: 'With all due respect guys, you are traveling from one of highest infected regions with a more infectious strain of #Covid_19..You guys run the risk of bringing it to #Ireland. Please consider staying put. It's hard I know.'
Another wrote: 'Pls rethink your plans. You risk bringing a more contagious strain of covid to Ireland. Elderly and vulnerable people are literally spending Xmas alone, inside afraid of seeing their families. Don't be selfish, flights from the UK to here are now being stopped for good reason [sic].'
It comes as talks continued between Britain and France to end President Macron's ban on freight travelling to Europe from Dover, with the French leader expected to announce his plan to allow trade to continue today.
Cross-Channel shipping lanes and the Channel Tunnel were closed on Sunday night after the identification of the new Covid-19 strain in the UK. The 48 hour closure is due to end at tonight at 11pm UK-time.
The French government has pledged to 'resume movement' as soon as possible, with the Port of Dover saying inbound lorries are now coming into the UK.
It comes amid a row between Britain and France over how to open the border.
Testing is the preferred option but there is a disconnect between the two parties on the form this will take.
France favours the slower PCR tests which can take up to three days to return with a result and can cost more than £180.
Paris also wants the testing to be carried out before an individual arrives on French soil, demanding some kind of certificate is presented upon arrival.
This would put the cost of the programme on the UK and, with the inherent delay that comes with PCR tests, mean that delays at the border could last past Christmas, confining drivers to their lorries over the festive period.
The UK, on the other hand, wants to use a rapid lateral flow test which can return a positive or negative result within 15 minutes.
They are less accurate but, as well as the speed, can cost far less per test as they do not need to be lab processed.
However, even if this quicker method is used, the testing programme is expected to cause logistical chaos with potentially 6,000 drivers a day needing to be screened.
The French government has pledged to 'resume movement' as soon as possible, with the Port of Dover saying inbound lorries are now coming into the UK
After a pointless press conference on Monday evening, Boris Johnson (pictured left) is said to be drawing up plans to send extra testing capacity to the Port of Dover in a bid to end chaos brought about by France's travel ban. Emmanuel Macron (pictured right) is expected to announce his plan to end the travel ban later
Meanwhile, lorry drivers waiting to cross the border now fear missing Christmas with their families. One French lorry driver currently stuck in Dover said: 'We known nothing, we don't know if we can get home to see our families for Christmas.'
Hopes that negative tests could allow air passengers to travel to Europe were boosted yesterday when a coalition of airlines agreed to test all passengers for Covid prior to boarding UK flights for New York.
However, the testing centre at Heathrow Airport is being hit by delays caused by a plumbing problem.
Southend Airport unveiled its own not-for-profit testing site this week, although it is not clear if there is enough capacity across all British airports to support testing for all passengers travelling to Europe.
New York's governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that British Airways and Delta Airlines had agreed to implement pre-boarding testing following the emergence of a highly contagious mutant strain of coronavirus in the UK.
Mr Cuomo said: 'When you do not require flights from the UK to be tested, you are allowing thousands of UK passengers to arrive here every day and, based on New York's experience in the spring, I believe this new, highly contagious strain of Covid-19 is already here.
'This is another disaster waiting to happen and all efforts must be placed into averting another crisis.'
A Virgin Atlantic spokesman later confirmed the airline had also agreed to commence pre-flight testing, saying the measures would be in place for all customers travelling from London to the US from Thursday, December 24.
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