Christmas shoppers in Oxford city centre England, Sunday Dec. 20, 2020. (Photo: AP)

Fears over a highly contagious coronavirus mutation sweeping across London and Southeast England saw Denmark add itself to a growing list of countries stopping air traffic from the United Kingdom (UK) on Monday.

Denmark closes the airspace for all passenger aircraft from the UK from 10 am on Monday for 48 hours to prevent a new mutated virus from spreading in Denmark, confirmed Minister of Health and Senior Citizens Magnus Heunicke on Twitter Monday.

"The mutated coronavirus, which has spread rapidly in London and other parts of England, can make it more difficult to control the infection, according to health authorities," said Benny Engelbrecht, Minister of Transport, in a press statement.

"The government, therefore, chooses to close (airspace) for flights from the UK for 48 hours, so there is more time to assess what measures should be taken."

Denmark's decision came in the wake of an assessment on Sunday from the States Serum Insittut (SSI) — the central laboratory for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, congenital diseases, and biological threats — which suggested that a restriction of flights between Denmark and the United Kingdom could be employed as a precautionary measure against the new variant.

However, in the SSI assessment, travelers from the UK are not deemed to pose a "significant risk to public health in Denmark" as long as SSI complies with the recommendations for isolation and testing on arrival.

The new variant has already reached Denmark, which has recorded ten cases between November 14 to December 21, local media reported.

"We have not yet seen signs in Denmark that this strain is more serious or more contagious, but we follow the development in this strain closely," the SSI said in its assessment.

Before Denmark, a number of other European countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany and Romania have announced to ban flights from Britain.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, countries including France, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are racing to find a vaccine.

According to the website of the World Health Organization, as of December 16, there were 222 COVID-19 candidate vaccines being developed worldwide, and 56 of them were in clinical trials.