'We WILL find a way!': Brazilians are bypassing UK travel ban by flying via Amsterdam and Madrid - as Britons are stuck in Portugal and South America after all flights are cancelled amid growing fears of mutant Covid strain
- Britons in Portugal and South America after all flights to the UK were cancelled
- Portugal on banned list due to travel links with Brazil amid fears over new strain
- Ban came into force at 4am this morning with some Britons now stuck abroad
- ** Are you a Brit stuck abroad? Please email MailOnline at: tips@dailymail.com ** Brazilians intent on reaching Britain today told how they the new travel restrictions banning all arrivals from South America and Portugal won't stop them making it.
Britons have been left stuck abroad after all flights were cancelled amid growing concerns about a mutant coronavirus strain which has emerged in Brazil.
The ban, which also covers the Central American state of Panama and the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde, came into force at 4am this morning.
All flights to and from the countries on the banned list have now been cancelled, including routes to London Heathrow from Lisbon,Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires.
The variant has caused a surge of cases in the Amazon city of Manaus, where the overwhelmed public health system has seen its hospitals ran out of oxygen.
But those preparing to come to Britain from Brazil's international airports have said they would find a way to bypass the restrictions.
With all direct flights to London which had been due to leave Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo cancelled last night, travellers were purchasing tickets on other airlines and planning instead to then take another flight from a European country not on the list.
Air passengers speak to staff at a check-in desk at Rio de Janeiro Airport in Brazil yesterday
Ainee Barroso, 29, was waiting for her evening flight to Amsterdam at Rio's Galeao international airport yesterday. She said intended to join other Brazilians she knew in the UK to live and work there.She said: 'I bought my ticket last year. The last few weeks have been very uncertain, there have been a lot of cancellations and I didn't know what to expect when I got here. It's been very stressful.
She said she understands where Britain wants to ban Brazilians. 'It's no-one's fault, the whole world's going through a difficult situation,' she said.
'It's very complicated in Brazil. A part of the population are trying to protect themselves, stay at home and isolate themselves from others, but the other part aren't doing the right thing. They aren't taking any precautions and are making it worse for everyone.'
Another traveller, Samuel, 25, who didn't want to give his full name, said he had managed to buy a ticket on the KLM flight to Amsterdam after his direct flight to London on British Airways flight was cancelled.
The trained chef, who has Italian nationality due to his grandparents, said he planned to spend a few days with friends in Holland before buying another flight to London, where he hoped to find work.
He said: 'I have friends in London who can find me work when the lockdown's over. They're working as delivery motorbike drivers in the meantime, and that's what I intend to do until all this is over.
'Brazil is chaotic at the moment, everyone's losing their jobs, everyone's struggling. Friends of mine have lost their relatives, parents, grandparents, from Covid. I want to get out of here and start a new life.
'The UK will be back to normal before any other country because they're really pushing ahead with vaccines. I don't think Brazil will be out of this for at least a year.'
A board at Rio de Janeiro Airport yesterday shows that a flight to London has been cancelled
Some passengers were still flying from Rio de Janeiro Airport yesterday despite the pandemic
Ticket gates in the departures area of Rio de Janeiro Airport in Brazil are pictured yesterday
Another Brazilian man, who didn't want to be named, also vowed to reach the UK, where he said he was going to visit his girlfriend.
'I'm taking a flight to Brazil, where I spent some time working a few years ago. From there I'll find a way to get to her.'
Brazil is in the midst of a devastating second wave and now has more than 207,000 deaths which is the second highest Covid death toll worldwide.
The country registered its highest daily average of infections this week, with 54,784 confirmed cases on average per day - up 51 per cent on two weeks ago. Deaths averaged 993 deaths per day, a rise of 49 per cent compared to two weeks ago.
Intensive care units in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are said to already be 90 per cent full.
In Manaus, the populous capital of Amazonas state where the new strain of the virus emerged, has been put in a state of emergency as the health system collapsed.
In Sao Paulo's Guarulhos airport, there was a similar scene as travellers turned up to find their flights to London cancelled.
Rosangela, 42, said she was returning to the UK, where she lives, after visiting her family, including an aunt who died from Covid while she was there.
After her direct flight back was cancelled, the Brazilian, who was with her teenage daughter, said she had bought a TAP Portugal flight to Porto, from where they would try to reach the UK.
She said: 'I don't think it's wrong to shut the borders. I used to think differently, but then I lost my aunt to Covid so now I agree they need to be tough. But we need to find a way to get back.
'We found a ticket with another airline to Portugal. We're hearing that they might have banned flights from Portugal too, so we'll just have to see what we have to do when we get there. We'll have to find a way.'
Juliana, 42, was also travelling back to the UK with her husband Marcus and four-year-old daughter.
After finding her direct flight cancelled, the family planned to fly to Madrid with another airline, and there buy another ticket to London.
Passengers wearing face masks walk through arrivals at London Heathrow Airport today
A display board shows expected flight arrivals at London Heathrow Airport this morning
Passengers walk through the international arrivals area of London Heathrow Airport today
She said: 'We came here for the holidays. I think they are right to shut the borders, the UK government should have done it a long time ago. The situation there is out of control.
'We've seen on the government website that you don't need a Covid test to get into the country until Monday, so hopefully we'll make it to London before then.
'I'm not looking forward to the lockdown when I get back. Here we were always out, and my daughter was always outside enjoying herself, and when we get back we'll have to be shut indoors.'
The city registered more hospitalisations in the first week of 2021 than in the whole month of December, with over 1,500 people admitted to hospital in a single day on Saturday.
Distressing scenes emerged as hospitals ran out of oxygen for virus patients, with desperate staff fighting to keep patients alive through manual ventilation.
Refrigerator trucks have once again been deployed to store bodies, while structures to hold 22,000 coffins in horizontal 'drawers' are hastily being constructed.
In a widely shared video from the region, a female medical worker asks the internet for help: 'We're in an awful state. Oxygen has simply run out across the whole unit today.'
'There is no oxygen and lots of people are dying,' she says in the clip. 'If anyone has any oxygen, please bring it to the clinic. There are so many people dying.'
Far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has been blamed for allowing the crisis to get out of control after consistently downplaying the pandemic and describing Covid as a 'little flu'.
Meanwhile some Britons have been left stranded in Portugal after the ban on UK entry was brought in due to the country's strong travel links with Brazil.
One Twitter user from Manchester posted: 'So I'm stuck in Portugal, how nice. I moved to a whole different country so I wasn't stuck here - f*** you, corona.'
A second, David Curle, of Lighthorne, Warwickshire, added: 'My flight home from Portugal on February 1 with BA has been cancelled for the fourth time.
'Looking to come back on February 22. I was due to come back on December 31. Hope the milk in the fridge has not gone off.'
And a third, Charlotte, wrote: 'I'm so jealous, my grandparents are stuck in Portugal.'
Jonny Wilso, from London, added last night: 'On the last flight back to UK, all flights cancelled from Portugal because of 'Brazilian variant'. F***, I'm in a movie still, when does it stop?'
Scientists analysing the Brazilian variant believe the mutations it shares with the new South African strain seem to be associated with a rapid increase in cases in locations where there have already been large outbreaks of the disease.
British and Irish nationals and others with residence rights are exempted from the ban, which was backed by the Scottish Government, though they must self-isolate for 10 days along with their households on their return.
There is an exemption also for hauliers travelling from Portugal to allow the transport of essential goods.
He said the move was to combat a new strain of coronavirus found in Brazil, telling Sky News: 'Scientists aren't saying that the vaccine won't work against it.
'But we are at this late stage now, we have got so far - we have got jabs into the arms of three million Brits now - that's more than France, Spain, Germany, Italy put together, and we do not want to be tripping up at this last moment.
'Which is why I took the decision, as an extra precaution, to ban those flights entirely.'
Mr Shapps added: 'Everybody coming from anywhere not on a travel corridor must, by law, quarantine. And there are not exceptions to that and you can end up with a criminal record if you don't.'
Portugal flight cancellations on a phone on the London Heathrow Airport app this morning
Flights at London Heathrow to and from destinations in Portugal have been cancelled
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the ban was a 'necessary step' but accused ministers of incompetence and 'lurching from one crisis and rushed announcement to another'.
Meanwhile a leading UK virologist said one of two Brazilian coronavirus variants was detected in Britain ahead of the South America travel ban being brought in.
Professor Wendy Barclay, who is advising the Government's Covid-19 response, said the variant may have been 'introduced some time ago' but it was unclear whether it was the highly-infectious strain that prompted the ban.
Her comments came after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he was 'not aware' of any cases of the strain that led him to impose the restrictions.
Professor Barclay, head of the G2P-UK National Virology Consortium, a new project set up to study the effects of emerging coronavirus mutations, said: 'There are two different types of Brazilian variants and one of them has been detected and one of them has not.
'In the databases, if you search the sequences, you will see that there is some evidence for variants from around the world, and I believe including the Brazilian one, which probably was introduced some time ago. That will be being traced very carefully.'The Imperial College virologist added that both Brazilian variants - one of which was detected by travellers in Japan and the other which is more prevalent in Brazil currently - have mutations that suggest 'they might impact the way that some people's antibodies can see the virus'.
'It is really important that we carry out this work now, and carry it out carefully, and in several different laboratories, to really firm up those results because they have big implications,' she added.
Earlier, Mr Shapps described the ban, which includes an exemption for British and Irish nationals, as a 'precautionary' measure to ensure the vaccination programme rolling out across the UK was not disrupted by new variants of the virus.
Asked if the Brazilian strain was currently in the country, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Not as far as we are aware, I think, at this stage.
'There haven't been any flights that I can see from the last week from Brazil, for example.'
People enjoy a drink sitting at tables of the Janis bar at Cais do Sodré in Lisbon on Wednesday
Dr Mike Tildesley, an epidemiologist who advises the Government on its scientific pandemic influenza group on modelling group, said the UK was late in imposing the travel ban but that it should minimise the risk from a 'more transmissible' variant.
'We always have this issue with travel bans, of course, that we're always a little bit behind the curve,' he told BBC Breakfast.
'My understanding is that there haven't really been any flights coming from Brazil for about the past week, so hopefully the immediate travel ban should really minimise the risk.'
Dr Tildesley said although scientists 'don't believe there is anything to worry about' in terms of vaccine efficacy, the higher transmissibility could mean 'people potentially might end up developing severe symptoms more rapidly which could cause more issues with our health service'.
The move came as the latest figures showed the number of people across the UK to have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine has passed 2.9 million.Public Health England (PHE) also released data showing infection rates had fallen in most regions of England across all age groups apart from the over 80s, in a further sign that lockdown measures are having an impact.
At the same time, however, the PHE surveillance report noted that there were more people being admitted to hospitals and intensive care units.
NHS England said around one in five major hospital trusts in England had no spare adult critical care beds on January 10.
The time lag between a fall in cases and an impact on the death toll means grim figures are likely to remain a factor for some time.
The latest official figures showed a further 1,248 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK as of Thursday.
Young people sit in the sunny but cold weather at Ribeira das Naus in Lisbon on Wednesday
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is coming under renewed pressure from Tory lockdown sceptics to set out how he will ease the restrictions on people's liberties as cases come down.
Former minister Steve Baker - who co-ordinated opposition to Theresa May's Brexit deal - suggested Mr Johnson's leadership would be 'on the table' if there was not a change of direction.
He urged colleagues on the Covid Recovery Group to make their views known to the chief whip, saying: 'People are telling me they are losing faith in our Conservative Party leadership because they are not standing up for our values as a party.
'If we continue forward with a strategy that hammers freedom, hammers the private sector, hammers small business owners and hammers the poor, inevitably the Prime Minister's leadership will be on the table: we strongly do not want that after all we have been through as a country.'
After his comments leaked, Mr Baker later tweeted: 'I am clear Boris is the only person to lead us out of these difficulties and I support him in that endeavour.'
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