Experts stress importance of delaying import of new Covid variant to UK to avoid Christmas mixing
As an alarming new Covid variant spread to Europe on Friday, scientists warned that it would inevitably reach Britain, while ministers faced calls to urgently speed up the vaccination programme.
Thousands of travellers were left stranded or with their plans in disarray after flight bans were introduced targeting countries across southern Africa, where the variant was discovered. Hotel quarantine and enhanced testing will be brought in across the UK, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, said.
Thousands of UK nationals face paying thousands of pounds for mandatory hotel quarantine on their return from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibia after Sunday. Non-UK and Irish nationals from those countries will be banned, while people arriving before Sunday at 4pm will have to take PCR tests and quarantine at home.
The EU agreed there was a need to suspend flights from southern African countries following restrictions announced by countries including the UK, Japan, Germany, Italy and Spain. The US and Canada also brought in travel curbs on Friday night.
South Africa said it was “unjustified” for other countries to impose travel bans and Boris Johnson held a call with the country’s president Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss the restrictions.
The FTSE 100 had its worst day since June 2020, closing down 3.6%, with £72bn wiped off the index. British Airways owner IAG ended the day nearly 15% lower, while Rolls-Royce slumped more than 11%.
