INDIA RED-LISTED

PM’S VISIT TO SUBCONTINENT SCRAPPED AS INFECTIONS SOAR AND VARIANT SPREADS

INDIA was added to the UK’s coronavirus ‘red list’ yesterday – as Boris Johnson finally bowed to pressure and cancelled his planned trip there next week.

Health secretary Matt Hancock said the move would come into force at 4am on Friday due to the country’s soaring Covid infections and a new variant that some experts fear may resist vaccines.

Passengers will be banned from entering the UK if they have been in India in the previous ten days, with the exception of British and Irish citizens and others with UK residency rights.

Those allowed entry must pay to quarantine in a government-approved hotel for ten days. Mr Hancock said 103 cases of the variant first identified in India had already been detected here.

He said: ‘The vast majority have links to international travel and have been picked up by our testing at the border.

‘After studying the data, and on a precautionary basis, we’ve made the difficult but vital decision to add India to the red list.’ Labour said ministers were ‘shutting the door after the horse has bolted’.

Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the home affairs committee, said: ‘Hong Kong this week has identified 47 Covid cases just on a single Delhi flight and we have still 16 more direct flights and many more indirect flights from India before Friday alone.’

Mr Hancock told her that decisions on countries were con

Warning signs:

Metro’s front page yesterday stantly reviewed. The prime minister, due to fly to India next week, admitted it was ‘only sensible’ to scrap the visit and will hold a video call with India’s leader Narendra Modi.

New Delhi has entered a week-long lockdown as the capital’s health system faces collapse. India reported 273,810 new cases – the highest daily rise so far. Experts have suggested the Covid strain identified there is likely to soon be classified as a ‘variant of concern’. But it remains unclear if it spreads more rapidly than other strains.