Following the Health Secretary announcing the discovery of a new variant of COVID-19 (Variant B.1.1.529), I raised concerns on behalf of residents about the immediate ban of flights from hotspot countries.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has added 6 south African nations onto the Travel Red List; including South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. British nationals arriving from these six countries between Friday and 4am Sunday, and who have been in these countries within the last 10 days, must quarantine at home for 10 days. More guidance can be found here.
These countries have been added onto the Travel Red List due to detected cases of the a new Covid-19 variant, B.1.1.529. This variant has been declared a variant under investigation (VuI) by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and no cases have been identified in the UK.
These precautionary measures have been introduced to protect public health and I welcomed the speed at which the Government has acted.
On behalf of Carshalton and Wallington residents, I asked the Secretary of State to confirm that flights from these 6 nations will be banned to protect our country from the new variant. I was pleased to hear that direct flights from the 6 countries will be banned from midday today until hotel quarantine is up and running from 4am Sunday 28 November.
You can watch my full question above, as well as the Secretary of State's response.