Portugal halts flights to UK over virus variant

Benches are marked with tape to warn people to not use them, at a public garden in Lisbon (Armando Franca/AP)

Portugal is stopping flights to and from the United Kingdom from Saturday, blaming a Covid-19 variant first identified in the UK for a surge in new Portuguese cases.

The move comes a week after the British Government halted flights to and from Portugal in an effort to prevent a variant found in Brazil from reaching the UK.