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ARivals from 30 countries are now subject to travel bans in the UK after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps added two more to the list on Thursday.
“To help stop the spread of the identified COVID-19 variant in South Africa, we ban all arrivals from Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as of 4 am tomorrow,” Shapps announced via Twitter.
“All passengers from these countries, except British and Irish citizens and third-country nationals with residency rights, will be denied entry,” he added, explaining that the government is closely monitoring new strains of the virus. .
All people traveling to the UK must already present a negative Covid-19 test prior to departure and self-isolate for a maximum of 10 days upon arrival.
In a press conference Thursday, Interior Minister Priti Patel was asked about future plans for restrictions on international travel. He said it was “too early” to speculate whether people should book a summer vacation, adding that “when it comes to borders and travel, it is right for the government to do everything possible right now to protect the deployment of this vaccine.”
However, criticism of the UK’s border measures comes from World Health Organization consultant Álvaro Garbayo, who, after arriving in London on Thursday, tweeted to Health Secretary Matt Hancock to say: “Border control at Heathrow it is a complete disaster, a crowd queuing for over an hour without enough room to maintain a safe distance. Just making sure we all get infected before entering the UK? By proactively boosting herd immunity? ”.
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