Nepal on Tuesday issued circulars to all international airlines to ensure that planes bound to Nepal shall not carry passengers originating from or transiting through the United Kingdom to prevent the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus in the country as it is considered to be 70 percent more infectious than the common strain.

“This is of your urgent attention to ensure that the aircraft bound to Nepal shall not board passengers originating from or transiting through the United Kingdom (UK) due to severe new strain of the Corona Virus [sic] in UK,” the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said in the statement.

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The entry restriction for such passengers into Nepal shall be effective from 23:59 hours of December 23 until further notice, according to the authority.

“There are no direct flights to and from the UK to Nepal. But given that some travellers coming from the UK are currently at transit airports, and this may cause them inconvenience, we have decided to restrict passengers originating from or transiting through the UK only from Wednesday midnight,” Rajan Pokhrel, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said.

India restricted flights from the UK, and vice versa from Tuesday.

Countries around the world are imposing bans and restrictions on travel from the UK to stem the transmission of a coronavirus variant that health authorities say can spread faster than others.

According to CNN, the new variant discovered in the UK prompted authorities to impose a Tier 4 lockdown in London and southeast England and tighten restrictions for all of England over the festive period.

Since the UK lockdown was announced on Saturday, nearly 40 countries in Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East have restricted travel from the UK and in some cases, also travel from other countries that have documented cases with the variant.

The variant has also been detected in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia, according to the World Health Organisation. In South Africa, a different coronavirus variant has been reported, the UN health organisation’s technical leader for Covid-19 Maria van Kerkhove, said Monday, according to a CNN report.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK has updates on the latest advice for UK travellers to other countries.