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Summary
- The UK government on Friday has announced a ban on arrivals from two African nations -- Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- The UK nationals and those who have residency rights will be exempted from this new rule.
Passengers arriving from Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo will not be allowed to enter the boundaries of Britain from 22 January, said Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary. The move comes after the UK is trying to limit the transmission of the new variant of coronavirus that has been identified in South Africa recently.
With the UK already struggling with its new mutation since December, it cannot afford to take any risk of letting yet another variant spread in the country. Hence, it has added the two African nations to the list banning all arrivals from them. The ban was scheduled to begin from 4 AM today.
(Image source: ©Kalkine Group 2020)
Shapps also said that the ban will not be applicable to British and Irish nationals and those with residency rights.
Separately, he tweeted that apart from the suspension of travel corridors and pre-departure testing that have been in effect, the government officials are continuing to monitor Covid-19 rates and new strains of the virus across the globe.
A research was conducted by the South African scientists on the new strain of the virus. It said that the new strain was 50 per cent more infectious that the previous one.
After which, Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser of the UK, issued a warning this week that coronavirus variants were a ‘real area of concern’.
The South African variant
A new variant known as 501.V2 Variant emerged in South Africa during the last month.
In a press conference, Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize formally disclosed the identification of a new mutation. He said that samples of coronavirus infected people in the past two months were studied by the genomics teams. The findings indicated that a particular variant was increasingly dominating.
However, there has not been any evidence that claim it to be more severe than the previous one. On 11 January, Pesident Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation, confirming that the new variant was driving the second wave in South Africa.
Interesting Read: South African virus strain more dangerous than the UK mutant warn UK health officials
Other countries on the list
Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo are the two latest countries to join the list of nations to be stopped from entering Britain. The UK had also banned travellers from other countries, which includes Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Zambia, and Zimbabwe on 9 January, applying the same rules.
The South Africa nationals have been restricted from travelling to Britain since 23 December, except for British nationals who need to self-isolate for 10-days.
PM Boris Johnson has been under pressure from the ministers who are calling out to the government to close the UK boundaries for all the travellers except for the Brits, over the rising concerns of the new variants being discovered.
