India has been added to England’s ‘red list’ of banned travel countries due to a rise in Covid-19 cases stemming from the new India variant.
This new variant is a double mutant with two distinct mutations in the spike protein which can infect cells faster and more effectively.
Professor Mark Walport, former Chief Scientific Adviser, believes this new variant to be “more transmissible” and the UK has “good reasons for wanting to keep it out of the country if at all possible.”
Since 15 April, India has reported more than 200,000 Covid-19 cases every day; a number that is continuing to rise.
“These decisions are almost inevitably taken a bit too late in truth, but what’s absolutely clear is that this variant is more transmissible in India,” said Walport.
So far, Britain has identified 182 cases, all of which have been linked to travel into the country.
Director of the Covid-19 Genomics Initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Dr. Jeffrey Barrett, said: “This variant has a couple of potentially concerning mutations but these are probably not as serious as some of the mutations present in the variants first seen in Kent, South Africa, and Brazil.”
But some politicians believe this incentive has arrived too late.
Labour MP and Chair of the Commons’ Home Affairs Committee, Yvette Cooper, said: “Hong Kong this week have identified 47 Covid cases just on a single Delhi flight and we have still 16 more direct flights, many more indirect flights from India to here before Friday alone.”
Now that India has been added to England’s ‘red list’, 40 countries are now banned from entry into the UK.
From 04:00 BST on Friday 23 April, people travelling from India will be refused entry into England unless they have a UK passport or residence rights.
Those who are granted entry must then quarantine for 10 days in a government-approved hotel.
Downing Street have confirmed that Boris Johnson’s planned trip to India next week has now been cancelled in light of the situation in the country.
While Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have not yet put India on their ‘red list’, they are expected to follow suit in the coming days.
Madeleine Raine
Featured image courtesy of Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash. Image license is available here. This image has in no way been altered.