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The UK government has Announced A travel ban from South Africa after two positive cases of a new variant of COVID-19 were detected in the country.
Britain is already grappling with another strain of the virus, which meant that the travel ban was critical to preventing further domestic infection.
“As part of our surveillance, and thanks to the impressive genomic capabilities of South Africans, we have detected two cases of another new coronavirus variant here in the UK,” UK Health and Welfare Secretary Matt said on Wednesday Hancock.
“They are both case contacts who have traveled from South Africa in recent weeks,” Hancock said.
The country’s Department for Transport said that since the UK does not currently have a travel corridor with South Africa, anyone who has recently returned from the country should already isolate themselves for 10 days and should continue to do so.
“Exemptions that are routinely applied, including those related to employment, will not apply and passengers arriving in England from South Africa after 9pm on December 23 cannot get out of self-isolation via Test to Release,” he added .
In addition, people who share a home with someone who is self-isolating after returning from South Africa will now also have to self-isolate until 10 days have passed since someone they live with was last in South Africa.
Additionally, British and Irish nationals, visa holders and permanent residents arriving from South Africa will be required to show a completed passenger locator form upon arrival in the UK.
“The Home Office will intensify the presence of the Border Force to ensure that those arriving in England from South Africa comply with the new restrictions,” the department said.
“The ban and the expanded self-isolation measures will be kept under review,” he added.
The department cautioned that the British in South Africa should continue to verify Travel advice from the Office of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development and sign up for email alerts.
South Africa COVID-19 variant
Health Minister Zwele Mkhize recently announced that genomics scientists in South Africa have identified a variant of the SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) virus, currently referred to as the ‘501.V2 variant’.
Additionally, clinicians have been providing anecdotal evidence of a change in the epidemiological clinical picture, in particular noting that they are seeing a higher proportion of younger patients with no comorbidities presenting with critical illness.
The evidence collected strongly suggests that the current second wave the country is experiencing is being driven by this new variant.
Professor Salim Abdool Karim said the second wave shows signs of spreading faster than the first wave of COVID-19.
“Hopefully it is a less severe virus, but we have no clear evidence at this time. We have not seen red flags in our current information on deaths, “he said.
“We had all these different strains that were routinely spread in South Africa during our first wave and beyond. What became quite different from what we did not expect is the rapid way this variant has become dominant in South Africa, ”added Karim.
Now Read: New Lockdown Restrictions Warning For South Africa
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