Last checked at 
(Adds countries closing borders, New York's Cuomo, details on
strain and detection in other nations)
* India, Hong Kong join nations cutting travel UK
* Follows discovery of highly infectious virus strain
* Supermarket Sainsbury's warns of shortages of some foods
* Sterling, stocks and bond yields tumble
* Chaos comes as Britain due to exit EU's orbit on Dec. 31
By Gerhard Mey and Ben Makori
DOVER, England, Dec 21 (Reuters) - A slew of countries
closed their borders to Britain on Monday over fears of a highly
infectious new coronavirus strain, heightening global panic,
causing travel chaos and raising the prospect of UK food
shortages days before the Brexit cliff edge.
India, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Jordan and Hong
Kong suspended travel for Britons after Prime Minister Boris
Johnson warned that a mutated variant of the virus, up to 70%
more transmissible, had been identified in the country. Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait and Oman closed their borders completely.
Several other nations have suspended travel from Britain
including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria,
Ireland, Belgium, Israel and Canada - although scientists said
the strain may already be circulating in countries with less
advanced detection methods than the United Kingdom.
The discovery of the new strain, just months before vaccines
are expected to be widely available, sowed fresh panic in a
pandemic that has killed about 1.7 million people worldwide and
more than 67,000 in Britain.
Australia said two people who travelled from the United
Kingdom to New South Wales state were found to be carrying the
mutated virus.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urged the U.S. government to
take steps to prevent the new strain entering the country, which
has been worst hit by COVID-19 with almost 318,000 deaths.
"It's high time the federal government takes swift action,
because today that variant is getting on a plane and landing in
JFK, and all it takes is one person," he said.
U.S. Assistant Health Secretary Brett Giroir said nothing
had yet been decided on any travel ban.
Johnson will chair an emergency response meeting on Monday
to discuss international travel, in particular the flow of
freight in and out of Britain. EU officials held a meeting on
coordinating their response.
France shut its border to arrivals of people and trucks from
Britain, closing off one of the most important trade arteries
with mainland Europe.
As families and truck drivers tried to navigate the travel
bans to get back home in time for Christmas, British supermarket
chain Sainsbury's said shortages would start to appear
within days if transport ties were not quickly restored.
"If nothing changes, we will start to see gaps over the
coming days on lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflowers,
broccoli and citrus fruit – all of which are imported from the
continent at this time of year," Sainsbury's said.
France's FNTR national road haulage federation said: "No
driver wants to deliver to the UK now, so the UK is going to see
its freight supply dry up."
'SICK MAN OF EUROPE'
The global alarm was reflected in financial markets.
European shares slumped, with travel and leisure stocks
bearing the brunt of the pain; British Airways-owner IAG
and easyJet fell about 8%, while Air France KLM
lost about 7%.
U.S. carriers Delta Air Lines also suffered, with
American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest
Airlines dropping 5% to 7% in premarket trading.
The British pound tumbled 2.5% against the dollar, and was
on course for its biggest one-day drop since March, while the
yield on two-year UK government bonds hit a record low.
Britain's tabloids bemoaned the crisis.
"Sick Man of Europe", the Daily Mirror newspaper said on its
front page beside a picture of Johnson while the Sun newspaper
said "French show no merci".
Johnson cancelled Christmas plans for millions of British
people on Saturday due to the more infectious strain of the
coronavirus, though he said there was no evidence that it was
either more lethal or caused a more severe illness.
The new variant and restrictions in Britain compound the
chaos as the country prepares to finally part ways with the
European Union, possibly without a trade deal, when the Brexit
transition period at 2300 GMT on Dec. 31.
Talks on a Brexit trade deal were due to continue on Monday.
The new variant, which scientists said was 40%-70% more
transmissible, is rapidly become the dominant strain in parts of
southern England, including London.
Experts stressed, though, that there was no evidence that
vaccines, including the one made by Pfizer and BioNtech
being deployed in Britain, would not protect against
this variant.
ASIAN INFECTIONS
Cases of the new strain have also been in detected in some
other countries, including Italy and the Netherlands. Some
scientists said the prevalence discovered in Britain might be
down to detection.
"Britain is simply the country which finds these mutations
the most because they are looking for them more. There are
countries that hardly search or do not search at all," Marc Van
Ranst, a virologist from the Rega Institute for Medical Research
in Belgium, told Belgian broadcaster VRT.
"I think we will find in the coming days that a lot of other
countries will find it."
The new strain has been identified at a time when COVID-19
cases have surged in several Asian countries that had previously
contained the pandemic, prompting localised lockdowns and more
aggressive testing.
South Korea said it was reviewing new measures for flights
from Britain, and would test twice those coming in from there
before they were released from quarantine.
New cases climbed to over 1,000 a day in South Korea several
times last week. It reported on Sunday an outbreak in a Seoul
prison where 188 inmates and staff were infected.
Thailand said it was testing tens of thousands of people,
and extended curbs on movement, following its worst outbreak yet
which began at a market in a province that is a seafood industry
hub and home to thousands of migrant workers.
Australia cancelled dozens of domestic flights on Monday,
while New South Wales ordered more than a 250,000 people into a
lockdown.
(Additional reporting by Toby Melville, James Davey and Kate
Kelland in London, Laurence Frost in Paris, Philip Blenkinsop in
Brussels, Sayantani Ghosh in Singapore, Frank McGurty in New
York, Josh Smith and Sangmi Cha in Seoul, Renju Jose in Sydney,
Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Mumbai and Farah Master in Hong Kong;
Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Pravin Char; Editing by Alison
Williams)
