INDIA ON RED LIST AS BORIS AXES TRIP
INDIA was placed on the UK’s travel ‘red list’ yesterday hours after Boris Johnson called off a planned visit.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs the worsening crisis in India meant tougher restrictions would be needed on a ‘precautionary basis’.
The Prime Minister had earlier said it was ‘only sensible’ to postpone next week’s planned trade trip to India while it was in the throes of a deepening crisis.
It came as Whitehall sources said officials were still in talks about the release of five million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine blocked from export to the UK by the Indian government last month.
India recorded 273,810 cases yesterday – the fifth consecutive day of more than 200,000, with 25,500 in Delhi alone.
Mr Hancock told MPs officials had identified 103 cases of a worrying new Indian variant in the UK. Three cases have also been recorded in Ireland, it was announced yesterday.
Government scientists are studying the new variant, known as the Indian double mutation, to establish if it has ‘concerning characteristics’ such as greater transmissibility or resistance to treatments and vaccines.
India will become the 40th country added to the red list. It means that from 4am on Friday, only British and Irish nationals, or those with UK residence rights, will be allowed to travel from India to this country. They will have to quarantine in a designated hotel for 10 days at a cost of £1,750 each.
Mr Hancock said it had been a ‘difficult but vital’ decision, adding: ‘India is a country I know well and love. Between our two countries we have ties of friendship and family. I understand the impact of this decision but we must act.
‘The biggest risk to our progress here in the UK is a new variant that the vaccine does not work as well against.’ Labour MP Yvette Cooper welcomed the decision but said it should have been taken 10 days ago when India’s neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh were added to the red list.
She also questioned why the restrictions were not being introduced with immediate effect, pointing out that another 16 direct flights from India would arrive in Britain before Friday. Dr Jeffrey Barrett, of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said the Indian variant had ‘a couple of potentially concerning mutations’ but was probably not as dangerous as mutations arising in South Africa and Brazil.
Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, said new variants threaten to ‘catch us out’. He told ITv’s Good Morning Britain: ‘Out there, there is the Indian variant, the South African, Brazilian etc, and they do pose a threat.’
Professor Andrew Hayward, who sits on a sub- committee of the Government’s Sage expert group, suggested ministers should follow Hong Kong’s example of imposing a two-week travel ban from India.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘ It’s a balance of harms and benefits. What we have is an unknown level of risk – my own preference in all of this is to err on the side of caution and to act sooner rather than later.’
The Prime Minister had been due to travel to India on Sunday. He and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi agreed to call off the visit as New Delhi entered a week-long lockdown to tackle a surge in cases and prevent a collapse of the capital’s health system.
Mr Johnson said he still hoped to travel to India this summer to meet Mr Modi. In the meantime, the two leaders are expected to hold talks by video link.
‘Act sooner rather than later’