we learned russia has banned travel from the united kingdom, india, canada. concern over this new variant of coronavirus which is spreading beyond control in the united kingdom. what is the latest on what the trump administration, this country knows about this new variant? well, thank you for having me on about this important topic. i had an extensive discussion with dr. redfield and his top people last night and this is what we know. the variant that s being discussed was first identified in september, so it s not something that just arose in the last week. it has become of concern because it is becoming the dominant variant in the uk. the inference is that because it is a dominant variant, it may be more transmissible and that may be true. it has not been proven but it may be true. what there is no evidence of nor reason to believe, it is not any more lethal or any more dangerous than the normal coronavirus, no evidence to suggest that, no reason to believe it. there is a
and when you could see economic relief. a cnn exclusive position leader, alexey navalny tricks a kremlin agent to reveals how he was poisoning. that incredible phone conversation ahead this hour. good to have you with us, and we begin with the latest on the new variant of the coronavirus spreading rapidly across the uk, and several other countries. pfizer and moderna say their companies are now testing their vaccines to see if they work against the new mutated version that has captured global headlines. meantime, a growing number of countries have halted travel from the u.k. where the new variant was first reported. the u.s. has not done so. sources say the trump administration is considering requiring travelers from the u.k. to present proof of a negative coronavirus test before arriving in the states. america s top infectious disease expert meantime says he wouldn t be surprised if the new variant is already here. cnn s salma abdelaziz is at the port of dover in england
spread faster than current strains. days before christmas, a rapid series of travel cutoffs, reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic. more than 20 countries as far east as hong kong and across the atlantic, including canada and argentina all shutting down air travel from the uk. notably not on the list, though is the united states. president trump largely avoiding the topic of coronavirus all together these days. except to argue that he deserves more credit for developing a vaccine. within the next hour, in the united kingdom, prime minister boris johnson set to chair an emergency meeting. cnn s nic robertson is live this morning at 10 downing street. nic, boris johnson planned to ease restrictions around the current holiday, now a rude about face with this new variant of covid-19. reporter: 16.4 million people in the country, a third of england under a tier 4 lock down because of the new variant that the government says could be more transmissible by 70% more. scie
vaccine resistant. they don t think so. on sunday alone more than 190,000 cases were reported across the country. health experts fear holiday gatherings are going to make this worse. and then there s the economic fallout of the pandemic. after months of clashing, lawmakers are poised to vote on a $900 billion relief bill today. what does it mean for you, for the millions of americans waiting for financial help in the midst of this crisis? we ll get to that. let s begin in london, nick robertson joins us outside of 10 downing street. how are officials responding to the discovery of this new variant? they re responding by trying to deal with the consequence and the announcement of tighter lockdown measures which was trying to control the spread in the uk and people trying to flee london by train, by plane and the message clearly not for people to do that. by far the biggest consequence for the government has been so many countries, well more than two dozen now, el salvador, l