UK adds six African countries to red list due to fears over new variant
A new variant of Covid-19 has emerged which descends from the B.1.1 lineage and is believed to have an “incredibly high” number of mutations, experts say.
South Africa’s health minister announced the discovery of this new variant on Thursday, that appears to be spreading rapidly in parts of the country. The first cases found were three in Botswana, followed by another six cases in South Africa, and one in Hong Kong involving a traveller returning from South Africa.
With fears that it is highly transmissible and effective at evading the body’s immune response, several countries are considering travel bans. The UK has added six African countries to its red list — South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe.
The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said: “As part of our close surveillance of variants across the world, we have become aware of the spread of a new potentially concerning variant.
“We are taking precautionary action to protect public health and the progress of our vaccine rollout at a critical moment as we enter winter, and we are monitoring the situation closely.”
