Last checked at 
(adds UK adviser, truckers, no progress on trade talks, BA
testing)
* Nations ban travel from UK over infectious new strain
* UK supermarkets warn of some food shortages
* Sterling, stocks and bond yields tumble
* Chaos comes as Britain due to exit EU's orbit on Dec. 31
* EU regulator approves use of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
* U.S. Congress poised to vote on $900 billion stimulus
By Gerhard Mey and Ben Makori
DOVER, England, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Countries across the
globe shut their borders to Britain on Monday due to fears about
a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, causing travel chaos
and raising the prospect of food shortages days before Britain
is set to leave the European Union.
India, Pakistan, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia,
Jordan and Hong Kong suspended travel for Britons after Prime
Minister Boris Johnson said a mutated variant of the virus had
been identified in the country. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman
closed their borders completely.
Several other nations blocked travel from Britain over the
weekend, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands,
Austria, Ireland, Belgium and Canada - although experts said the
strain may already be circulating in countries with less
advanced detection methods than the United Kingdom.
France shut its border to arrivals of people and trucks from
Britain, closing off one of the most important trade arteries
with mainland Europe.
Trucks backed up for miles on the highway leading to the
port of Dover, Britain's main trade gateway with the continent
and thousands of Europe-bound drivers were stranded.
"My chances of going home for Christmas are going down. It's
stupid and I am nervous and unhappy about that," said Stanislaw
Olbrich, a 55-year-old Polish trucker stuck 24 miles (40 km)
north of Dover.
The discovery of the new strain, just months before vaccines
are expected to be widely available, sowed new panic in a
pandemic that has killed about 1.7 million people worldwide and
more than 67,000 in Britain.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urged the U.S. government to
take steps to prevent the variant entering the United States,
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.
British Airways agreed to allow only passengers who test
negative for the coronavirus to fly to New York's John F.
Kennedy International Airport, he said.
U.S. Assistant Health Secretary Brett Giroir said nothing
had yet been decided on any travel ban.
European officials met via video link to coordinate their
response to the new strain. The EU is on course to start
vaccinations within a week after its medicines regulator
approved the use of a shot from Pfizer and BioNTech
on Monday.
Experts said there was no evidence that vaccines would not
protect against this variant but they were working around the
clock to determine whether the mutations would affect how well
the shots guarded against infection.
The UK government's chief scientific adviser, Patrick
Vallance, said tighter restrictions on public life in Britain
were likely.
"I will say that the evidence on this virus is it spreads
easily, it's more transmissible, we absolutely need to make sure
we've got the right level of restrictions in place," Vallance
told a news conference hosted by Johnson.
"And I think it's likely therefore that measures need to
need to be increased in some places in due course, not reduced."
FOOD SHORTAGES WARNING
As well as the traffic jams around British ports, trucks
were also backed up in Calais and other French ports. Although
they are allowed to cross from France to Britain, the logistics
chain that keeps the goods moving has been thrown out of kilter.
"No driver wants to deliver to the UK now, so the UK is
going to see its freight supply dry up," France's FNTR national
road-haulage federation said.
British supermarket chains Sainsbury's and <Tesco
TSCO.L> 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.
The global alarm was reflected in financial markets.
European shares slumped, with travel and leisure stocks
bearing the brunt. British Airways-owner IAG and
easyJet dropped about 7%, while Air France KLM
lost around 3%.
Wall Street also felt the pain, with losses across the
board. The S&P 1500 airlines index slid 3%, while
leading cruise operators fell about 4%.
The British pound tumbled 2.5% against the dollar at one
point before paring some of the losses, while the yield on
two-year UK government bonds hit a record low.
CHRISTMAS CLAMPDOWN
Johnson cancelled Christmas plans for millions of British
people on Saturday due to the more infectious coronavirus
strain, 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 continued on Monday but Johnson
said there were still problems and the position was unchanged.
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 tracking it said there was some early but
unconfirmed evidence that it could transmit as readily among
children as among adults, unlike previous dominant strains.
Cases of the new strain have also been in detected in some
other countries, including Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands.
Australia said two people who travelled from Britain to New
South Wales state were carrying the mutated virus. It axed
dozens of domestic flights while New South Wales locked down
more than 250,000 people.
Some scientists said the prevalence discovered in Britain
might be down to more thorough detection.
"I think we will find in the coming days that a lot of other
countries will find it," Marc Van Ranst, a virologist from the
Rega Institute for Medical Research in Belgium, told broadcaster
VRT.
(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland, Toby Melville and James
Davey 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 Angus
MacSwan)
