Canada on Sunday announced it was suspending flights from the UK for 72 hours over concerns of a new genetic variant of the novel coronavirus.

All commercial and private passenger flights from the UK were to be halted from midnight, the Canadian government said in a statement.

Passengers who arrived in Canada from the UK on Sunday were to be subject to secondary screening and enhanced measures, including "increased scrutiny of quarantine plans," according to the statement.

The government said that "while early data suggest that the United Kingdom variant may be more transmissible, to date there is no evidence that the mutations have any impact on symptom severity, antibody response or vaccine efficacy."

Canada joined a list of European countries that also halted flights from the UK, after a new strain of the coronavirus prompted the UK government to upgrade measures to curb the virus transmission.

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European nations halt UK travel amid new virus strain fears