UK suspends flights to six African countries as new Covid variant raises alarms
Britain has announced that it was temporarily banning flights from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini from 1200 GMT today because of the newly identified coronavirus variant spreading in South Africa.
Flights that are returning British travellers from those destinations would have to quarantine.
Britain yesterday said it was concerned by a newly identified coronavirus variant spreading in South Africa that might make vaccines less effective and imperil efforts to fight the pandemic.
The UK Health Security Agency said the variant, which is called B.1.1.529, has a spike protein that was dramatically different to the one in the original coronavirus that COVID-19 vaccines are based on.
The variant was first identified at the start of this week, but Britain rushed to introduce travel restrictions on South Africa and five neighbouring countries, acting much more swiftly than with the currently dominant Delta variant.
“And that would suggest that it may well be more transmissible and the current vaccines that we have may well be less effective.”
Scientists said lab studies were needed to assess the likelihood of the mutations resulting in greatly reduced vaccine efficacy.
Earlier yesterday, South African scientists said they had detected the new COVID-19 variant in small numbers and were working to understand its potential implications.
The variant has also been found in Botswana and Hong Kong, but the UK Health Security Agency said no cases of it had been detected in Britain.
Imperial College London epidemiologist Neil Ferguson said that B.1.1.529 had an “unprecedented” number of mutations in the spike protein and was driving a recent rapid increase in case numbers in South Africa.
“The government’s move to restrict travel with South Africa is, therefore, prudent,” he said.
“However, we do not yet have reliable estimates of the extent to which B.1.1.529 might be either more transmissible or more resistant to vaccines, so it is too early to be able to provide an evidence-based assessment of the risk it poses.”
Source; Reuters
