A temporary mortuary has been built in London to deal with a surge in Covid-19 deaths.

The facility in Ruislip, northwest London, was built in one week and will hold 1,300 at full capacity. It will cater for the entire city and provide 20 per cent additional for public mortuaries, said officials.

My colleague Matt Mathers reports:

Epidemiologist Dr Mike Tildesley, of the University of Warwick, has said that the travel ban on arrivals from South America is slightly late but will still “minimise the risk” of the new coronavirus variant from entering the UK.

Dr Tildesley told BBC Breakfast: “We always have this issue with travel bans of course, that we’re always a little bit behind the curve.

“With Covid we need to remember that when you develop symptoms you could have been infected up to a couple of weeks ago.

“So it’s really important that these travel bans come in quickly so that we can prevent any risk.

“My understanding is that there haven’t really been any flights coming from Brazil for about the past week, so hopefully the immediate travel ban should really minimise the risk.”

He added that scientists will know “in the next few days” whether the ban has had “a significant effect”.

Qatar, Madeira and the Caribbean island of Aruba have been removed from the UK government’s “travel corridor” list, which means people arriving from these places must self-quarantine for two weeks.

The Azores, Chile and the Dutch Caribbean islands of Bonarie, St Eustatius and Saba have also lost their travel corridor status, said the Department for Transport on Thursday evening.

Read more about changes to travel by our Travel Correspondent Simon Calder:

France has banned the use of rapid, but less accurate, Covid-19 tests for non-EU travellers – prompting fears there could be a return to the pre-Christmas border chaos seen in Kent.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said he believed there would be an exemption for lorry drivers to continue receiving the quick tests, but admitted it was only “for the time being”.

Our Deputy Political Editor Rob Merrick reports:

The UK economy shrank by 2.6 per cent in November, following a small increase of 0.6 per cent in October, said the Office for National Statistics.

This is the first drop since April at the start of the pandemic, when output was 25 per cent lower compared to the same time the previous year, reports my colleague Eleanor Sly.

The British Chambers of Commerce has called on the Chancellor to provide more financial support to businesses, warning that firms across the UK are facing a “desperate situation”.

Adam Marshall, director general of the BCC, said: “We have written to the Chancellor to highlight the desperate situation facing thousands of businesses all across the UK.

“The damage inflicted by the pandemic is widespread. It goes far beyond the very visible casualties hit by repeated stop-start lockdowns.

“The support schemes the Government has introduced so far have saved many firms and jobs, but they have not gone far enough to help many survive a tough start to 2021. The drip-feed approach to business support measures has meant many firms simply cannot plan for the future.

“We are urging the Government to urgently adopt a package of measures that covers the whole of 2021, and that takes away the cliff-edges firms face in a few weeks’ time when reliefs, forbearance and furlough are set to end. Many companies simply can’t wait until the March Budget.”

Travellers from South American countries have now been banned from entering the UK, amid growing fears of a new variant of Covid-19 which emerged in Brazil.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said he was taking the “urgent decision” to suspend arrivals from the region, as well as from the Central American state of Panama and Portugal, and the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde.

Read the full story by Rob Merrick and Jon Stone below:

Good morning, and welcome to The Independent’s liveblog following the coronavirus pandemic as it develops.