New Covid Variant: Several Countries Ban Travellers from Southern Africa

Pat Stevens/

The EU has followed the UK’s lead by announcing plans to impose travel restrictions on some southern African nations as a surge in cases of a new coronavirus variant caused global health alarm.

After the UK placed six southern African countries back on its red list, the EU said today that it was also likely to ban travellers from the region following the discovery of the new Covid-19 variant.

Travellers returning from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini would have to quarantine for 10 days at a government facility.

Sajid Javid, UK health secretary, Sajid Sajid, today described the new B.1.1.529 variant as a “huge international concern”, telling the House of Commons that “early indications show this variant may be more transmissible than the Delta variant, and current vaccines may be less effective against it.”

The bans follow mounting concern among scientists over the B.1.1.529 Sars-Cov-2 variant’s ability to evade vaccines and transmit faster than the dominant Delta variant. The strain, first identified in Botswana and which is understood to have 50 mutations, is believed to be behind a resurgence in Covid-19 cases in South Africa over the past week.

Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, tweeted on Friday that she would “activate the emergency brake to stop air travel from the southern African region due to the variant”.

Israel also banned travel to and from seven southern African nations, including South Africa and Botswana, and Israelis returning from those countries would have to quarantine for seven days, and be tested twice before release.

As one definite and two suspected cases of the new strain were confirmed, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned that the highly vaccinated country was on the “verge of a state of emergency”.

“Our main principle is to act fast, strong and now,” his office said in a statement.

Hong Kong said it had recorded two cases of the variant following genome sequencing analysis. They were a traveller who arrived from South Africa this month and another from Canada who had stayed on the same floor of a quarantine hotel. Singapore has also put restrictions on countries in the region.

South Africa on Friday accused the UK, which made its move first, on Thursday evening, of rushing to ban travel before the variant was properly assessed.

“Whilst South Africa respects the right of all countries to take the necessary precautionary measures to protect their citizens, the UK’s decision to temporarily ban South Africans from entering the UK seems to have been rushed as even the World Health Organization is yet to advise on the next steps,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Our immediate concern is the damage that this decision will cause to both the tourism industries and businesses of both countries,” the country’s foreign minister added.

The strain has been described as the most concerning coronavirus variant that researchers have encountered. Unconfirmed data appear to show it is spreading faster than thought in South Africa, where the rate of tests yielding a positive result has jumped in recent weeks.

The World Health Organization held an emergency meeting today to discuss the new strain.

Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist of the WHO, said the new variant had “a number of worrying mutations in the spike protein”.

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