Russia extends ban on UK flights until Feb. 1 over coronavirus variant

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has extended a ban on flights to and from Britain until the end of Feb. 1 due to the new coronavirus variant detected in the UK, Russia's coronavirus taskforce said on Tuesday.

Russia, which has already reported a case of the more infectious coronavirus variant, has had the flight ban in place since Dec. 22.

(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov and Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Andrew Heavens)