A coronavirus variant raises fears
Countries across Asia and Europe are racing to bar travelers from Britain, as the U.K. struggles to contain an outbreak of what officials said was a more contagious variant of the coronavirus.
Hong Kong closed its borders to travelers from Britain on Monday, banning all passenger flights from the country starting at midnight. The restrictions will be extended for the first time to include Hong Kong residents, as well as transit passengers who spent more than two hours in Britain over the past two weeks.
France imposed a 48-hour suspension of freight transit across the English Channel, leaving thousands of truck drivers stranded in their vehicles. Saudi Arabia announced a one-week ban on all international travel. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands also announced restrictions on travel. Beyond the European Union, Canada, India, Iran, Israel and Russia were among the places issuing their own restrictions.
The science on the new coronavirus variant is still developing. But experts say it will take years — not months — for the virus to evolve enough to render new vaccines impotent. The European Union’s drug authority, the European Medicines Agency, authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Monday. The agency is expected to give its decision on the Moderna vaccine authorization request on Jan. 6.
Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.
In other developments:

■ The Moderna vaccine shipped across the U.S., as the virus shows no signs of abating in the country. Parts of California are down to their last I.C.U. beds and some hospitals in other states are at or over capacity.

■ A New York Times analysis found that Mexico’s government had data that should have prompted an immediate lockdown in early December. Instead, it kept Mexico City open for another two weeks.
The New York Times