S Africa flights ban over new mutation
...and anyone who’s been there must isolate with their family
A TRAVEL ban on visitors from South Africa to England is being imposed today over fears of a new super strain of coronavirus.
Five days after it emerged that a mutant variant of the virus was fuelling infections, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced yesterday that a second one had entered the country.
The new strain, found in two people, is believed to be even more infectious than the one that has plunged much of the UK into Tier Four.
It has been driving a second wave in South Africa, largely among young people, according to officials.
Passengers travelling from South Africa to England from 9am today, and those who have transited through South Africa in the past ten days, will be refused entry. Direct flights will be banned.
British and Irish nationals, permanent residents and visa-holders who are allowed in will be required to self-isolate for ten days along with their household, and to show a completed passenger location form on arrival in the UK, to help with tracing any outbreaks.
The Home Office will step up its Border Force presence to ensure those arriving in England from South Africa comply with the new restrictions, but the ban and expanded self-isolation measures will be kept under review.
Mr Hancock told the Downing Street press conference yesterday: ‘This new variant is highly concerning because it is yet more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant discovered in the UK.’
A mutant strain of coronavirus first found in Kent in September has spread rapidly across the country, with the first case identified in Northern Ireland last night.
The South African variant, picked up in two people in London and the North West, is now suband ject to strict containment efforts to stop it doing the same.
A Government source said last night: ‘We are taking no chances with this strain.’
Dr Julian Tang, honorary associate professor and clinical virologist at the University of Leicester, said: ‘The spread of this variant seems to be focused in the south and south-east regions of South Africa exhibits higher viral loads – which may make it more transmissible via aerosols produced during breathing and talking.
‘Ongoing studies in South Africa are being conducted to assess whether it causes more severe disease, whether it targets young people specifically (or whether this is a behavioural effect), and whether the Covid-19 vaccines in development will be effective against it.
‘There is some suggestion that this South African variant may be driving a faster-spreading second wave in South Africa that may be bigger than the first wave.’
The travel ban will exclude cargo and freight without passengers.
Mr Hancock stressed the measures being taken are ‘temporary’ while the new variant is analysed.
But he told the Downing Street press conference: ‘Just as we’ve got a tiered system in place that was able to control this virus, we’ve discovered a new more contagious virus – a variant that is spreading at a dangerous rate.’
He added: ‘Against this backdrop of rising infections, rising hospitalisations and rising numbers of people dying from coronavirus, it is absolutely vital that we act.’
The mutated strain is called the 501.V2 variant. In South Africa, it is said to increase the amount of virus in people’s bodies, suggesting it may spread more easily.
Salim Abdool Karim, the South African government’s leading Covid-19 adviser, said: ‘The preliminary data suggests that the virus that is now dominating in the second wave is spreading faster than the first wave.
‘It is not clear if the second wave has more or less deaths – the severity is still very unclear.’
‘Spreading at a dangerous rate’