As coronavirus outbreaks continue to emerge from Denmark’s mink farms, Downing Street is imposing new immigration powers against any visitors from the country.
As of 4am today, all non-British nationals or residents who have travelled in or transited through Denmark in the last 14 days will be denied entry into the UK.
The Government also announced it is enforcing self-isolation requirements for Denmark, after the country was removed from its list of travel corridors yesterday.
Anyone returning to the UK, either directly or indirectly from the country, are now required to self-isolate for two weeks along with all other members of their household.
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In a statement, a Department for Transport spokeswoman said: ‘Unlike other travel to the UK, there will be no exemptions to this quarantine policy.
‘Anyone who has returned from Denmark within the last two weeks will be contacted to ensure they complete the self-isolation needed to ensure the virus does not spread across the UK.
‘Decisions on border measures and travel advice can be changed rapidly if necessary to help stop the spread of the disease and further announcements regarding freight will be made later today,’ adding the travel ban and extra requirements will be reviewed after a week.
‘The UK Government is working closely with international partners to understand the changes in the virus that have been reported in Denmark and we are conducting a programme of further research here in the UK to inform our risk assessments.’
The Scandinavian country was also added to Scotland’s travel quarantine list yesterday, as announced by Nicola Sturgeon at the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing.
Denmark is the world’s largest mink fur exporter and produces an estimated 17 million furs per year.
The Danish government has ordered the cull of all 15 million minks bred in the country’s 1,139 mink farms.
Since June 2020, 214 human cases of Covid-19 have been identified in Denmark with mutations associated with farmed minks, including 12 cases with a unique variant, reported on November 5.
All 12 cases were identified in September 2020 in North Jutland, Denmark. The ages of those who tested positive ranged from seven to 79 years.
Eight had a link to the mink farming industry while four cases were reported to be from the local community.
The Danish government said a mutation of the coronavirus had been found in the 12 people infected by minks, which farmers have been ordered to cull en masse.
But experts said the significance of any variant strain and its effect on humans was unclear because it was yet to be studied.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Covid-19 strains infecting minks, which are subsequently transmitted to humans, may have acquired ‘unique combinations of mutations.’
It said: ‘As viruses move between human and animal populations, genetic modifications in the virus can occur.’
Several other animals that have been in contact with infected humans, such as dogs, domestic cats, lions and tigers, have tested positive for coronavirus.
The WHO added that although the virus is believed to be ancestrally linked to bats, its origin is yet to be identified.
Ian Jones, professor of virology at University of Reading, said the mink virus mutation was ‘not surprising’, although there are not enough data to comment on specifics.
He added: ‘The danger is that the mutated virus could then spread back into man and evade any vaccine response which would have been designed to the original, non-mutated version of the spike protein, and not the mink-adapted version.’
So far Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Italy, and the US have reported SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes Covid-19 – in farmed minks.
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