[FILE] UK’s updated entry requirements does nothing to promote travel to South Africa. Image: Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP
BREAKING: South Africa to be added to UK red list again over B.1.1.529
South Africa and five other African countries will be added to the UK travel red list on Friday, 26 November.
[FILE] UK’s updated entry requirements does nothing to promote travel to South Africa. Image: Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP
South Africa, along with five other African countries, will be added to the United Kingdom’s (UK) travel red list from noon on Friday, 26 November. This comes after a new COVID-19 variant of concern – B.1.1.529 – was detected in the country.
SOUTH AFRICA BACK ON UK RED LIST
Sajid Javid, the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe would be placed on the travel red list and flights would be banned from Friday.
Javid said the UK Health Security Agency was investigating the variant and although more data is needed the authorities are taking pre-emptive precautionary measures immediately.
At a briefing on Tuesday afternoon, South African scientists said the B.1.1.529 variant has a high number of mutations and while it will take some time before its full significance is known, the variant is predicted to have enhanced transmissibility and significant immune evasion.
No cases of the variant have been detected in the UK thus far, according to The Guardian. Travellers that recently returned to the UK from South Africa and neighbouring countries are expected to be tracked down and offered PCR tests.
Ewan Birney, of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, called for the UK government to implement urgent “code red” travel restrictions, while investigations into the variant’s transmissibility are investigated.
“What we’ve learned from the other situations like this – some have turned out OK and some haven’t – is that whilst we’re [investigating] you have to be reasonably paranoid,” said Birney to The Guardian.
