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Covid: UK's ban on South America travellers comes into force

Covid: UK's ban on South America travellers comes into force

Covid: UK's ban on South America travellers comes into force
Jan 15, 2021 2 mins, 7 secs

Travellers from South America are no longer allowed to come into the UK, amid fears over a new coronavirus variant first identified in Brazil.

Like variants discovered in the UK and South Africa, it is thought the Brazil variant could be more contagious.

Virologist Prof Wendy Barclay said one Brazilian variant had already been detected in the UK.

Prof Barclay, head of G2P-UK National Virology Consortium, which is studying the effects of emerging coronavirus mutations, said: "There are two different types of Brazilian variants and one of them has been detected and one of them has not.".

Earlier, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the Brazilian variant was not "as far as we are aware" already in the UK, adding that he did not believe there had been any flights from Brazil in the last week.

The UK's new travel ban applies to people who have travelled from, or through, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela in the last 10 days.

However, the UK's travel ban was prompted by fears of how quickly the new variant could spread through the region - since Brazil borders 10 countries.

Mr Shapps has said the ban is "precautionary", adding he "can't provide an end date" to the new rules.

Because holidays are not currently allowed, Mr Shapps said he did not "expect a large number of Brits to have jaunted off to South America", and the government was "not expecting to see a big repatriation issue as a result".

Many countries imposed travel restrictions after new variants of Covid-19 were identified in the UK and South Africa.

Several Central and South American nations - including Brazil - had already restricted travel from the UK before the latest ban on arrivals.

He told the BBC's South America correspondent Katy Watson the new variant showed some of the same mutations as the UK and South Africa variants - and "some of these mutations have been linked to increased transmission and that is of concern".

Mr Shapps also announced Qatar and the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba were being removed from the UK's travel corridor list, meaning arrivals from those places will need to self-isolate for 10 days from 04:00 GMT on Saturday.

Covid-19: Brazil travel ban to be discussed over new variant.

Growing concern over Brazil coronavirus variant

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