Russia announced Monday it will join more than a dozen countries in suspending flights with the UK over the emergence of a highly infectious strain of the coronavirus.

Police officers wearing face masks guard in terminal F at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on April 4, 2020. (File photo: AFP)

A government decree said Russia would "temporarily suspend flights with the UK due to the worsening epidemiological situation" and that the ban would last for a week starting from midnight local time (2100 GMT) on Monday.

The decree added that health officials were "carefully studying" the emergence of the new strain and that "further decisions" would be made based on the results of the research.

Russian Health regulator Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement that "mutations are expected for viruses and are more often than not just neutral regional markers useful for contact tracing."

Countries around the world began suspending flights from Britain after it said over the weekend that a new more infectious strain of the coronavirus was spreading "out of control".

The restrictions have also covered other countries where the new strain has been discovered including South Africa and Denmark.

Russia suspended all international air travel at the beginning of the pandemic but resumed flights with several countries this summer including Britain.