Six African countries have been added to the United Kingdom's "red" travel list due to concerns about a new coronaviruses variant.
The UK secretary of state for health and social care made the announcement on Thursday, shortly after the World Health Organization gave a briefing about the variant. It was initially identified in another country. There have been cases in South Africa.
There are more travel restrictions for people who live in the UK if they are from South Africa. People who don't live in the UK can't travel to the UK from other countries.
Javid said that the implications of the variant are still unclear. It may be more transmissible than the Delta variant, and our current vaccines may be less effective against it.
Our scientists are worried about this variant. Javid said that he was concerned that that was one of the reasons for the action.
Delta is a variant that accounts for 99% of new coronaviruses in the US. The last strain helped make it more infectious.
The new variant, which will likely be assigned a Greek codename similar to Delta and the formerly-dominant Alpha variant by the WHO, has more than 50 mutations overall, and more than 30 on the spike protein, according to Prof. Tulio de Oliveira, the director of the Centre for
According to officials, the variant seems to be responsible for an increase in coronaviruses in South Africa. The number of confirmed cases has gone up from 10 on Wednesday to 100.
After Sunday morning, people from the designated African countries will need to stay in government-approved hotels for 10 days. The government is suspending all flights from the countries until the hotel quasar system is up and running.
The situation will be further analyzed by the WHO on Friday. Javid said that the restrictions were meant to protect the UK's progress to date.
He said that it was a reminder to all that the Pandemic is not over.
