Six African nations on ‘red list’ to stop Covid super-mutant

Quarantine for South Africa travellers

South Africa and five neighbouring countries were added to the foreign travel ‘red list’ last night amid fears over an alarming new Covid strain.

the move is a massive blow for travellers planning a winter holiday to the region as it means having to quarantine in a hotel on return, effectively putting it off-limits.

It will also raise fears of more countries being added to the ‘no-go’ list if it emerges the potentially vaccine-busting variant has spread.

South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland) and Lesotho were added to the ‘red list’ after an emergency meeting of the Covid operations cabinet committee.

health Secretary Sajid Javid said scientists were ‘deeply concerned’ about the new variant but more work was needed to understand how dangerous it was. he added: ‘the early indication we have of this variant is it may be more transmissible than the Delta variant

‘Scientists deeply concerned’

and the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective against it.

‘to be clear, we have not detected any of this new variant in the uK at this point in time. But we’ve always been clear that we will take action to protect the progress that we have made.

‘So, what we will be doing is... we will be suspending all flights from six southern African countries and we will add in those countries to the travel red list.

‘those countries are South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Botswana. We will be requiring anyone who arrives from those countries from 4am on Sunday to quarantine in hotels. If anyone arrives before then they should self-isolate at home and take a PCR test on day two and day eight.

‘And if anyone has arrived from any of those countries over the last ten days, we would ask them to take PCR tests.

he added: ‘our scientists are deeply concerned about this variant and from what we know about it at this point – and again, we need to learn a lot more and test the live virus – but from what we do know, there’s a significant number of mutations, perhaps double the number of mutations that we have seen in the Delta variant.’

the ‘red list’ was reduced to zero nations at the end of last month when its remaining seven countries were removed. But ministers kept the policy in place, with hotel rooms on standby should a new mutant strain emerge. Anyone returning from a red list country must quarantine in an airport hotel for 11 nights at a personal cost of £2,285.

South Africa’s health minister says the variant is a ‘major threat’ and behind an ‘exponential’ rise in cases across the country. Infections in South Africa have surged more than tenfold from 100 per day to 1,200.

Professor tulio de oliveira, a director of Covid surveillance in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, said the strain was now likely to be across much of the country. It has five times more mutations in one part of its spike protein than the Delta, or ‘Indian’ variant, meaning it might be better at infecting those who had been vaccinated, he added.

the World health organisation will hold an emergency meeting today to discuss the variant.

It is hoped acting fast could prevent the variant being imported to the uK in large numbers, as happened with the Delta variant earlier this year.

Chris Snowdon, from the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: ‘hong Kong had one imported case of this variant and that’s where it ended because they have proper quarantine. We need to do that ASAP, especially for anyone from sub-Saharan Africa.’

the Botswana variant has 32 mutations and is the most evolved version of Covid yet. Experts say it may have evolved in an immunocompromised patient – potentially someone with undiagnosed Aids.

It came as research revealed that virus cases are plummeting in the over-60s. Yesterday’s weekly Covid-19 report found that cases have risen sharply in young adults and schoolchildren since mid-November. But they have fallen in older adults as millions get their booster jabs.

Cases are now ten times higher in five to nine-year-olds than in over-80s, according to the uK health Security Agency. the stark contrast in infection rates demonstrates the success of vaccination and the lifesaving impact of the booster rollout.

Yesterday there were 47,240 reported new cases and 147 deaths. there are 7,641 Covid patients in hospitals – compared with 9,664 on November 1.