Britain bans entry to travelers from 6 African countries due to a new mutant

Britain announced, yesterday, Thursday, that it will prevent travelers from six African countries from entering its territory due to a new mutated version of the Corona virus that was detected in South Africa and is likely to be more contagious than its predecessors.

British Health Minister Sajid Javid said that the ban will include all flights from the six countries, which are South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Botswana, as of Friday.

He added, "The initial indications that we have on this mutant indicate that it may be more transmissible than the delta mutant, and that the vaccines we currently have may be less effective" in preventing infection.

The minister pointed out that British scientists are "extremely concerned" about this new mutated version that South Africa blames for the recent increase in the number of HIV infections in the country.

This mutation was also spotted in travelers from Botswana and Hong Kong.

But Javid reassured that no infection with this mutant has been recorded in Britain.

"We will ask everyone who arrives from one of these countries from Sunday to self-quarantine in a hotel," he said, adding that those who arrive from these countries before this date will have to self-quarantine at home and take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. On the second day of their arrival and a second, similar test six days after the first.

And the Minister of Health explained that the decision to subject those coming from these countries to Britain will be applied retroactively, as "we will ask everyone who has arrived from one of these countries during the past ten days to undergo polymerase chain reaction tests."

Britain is one of the European countries that recorded the highest number of deaths due to Covid, with about 144,000 deaths, since the pandemic began.

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