- Boris Johnson cancels his visit to India
- “Vast majority” of new variant first identified in India are linked to international travel
- UK makes decision to add India to its red list
Just hours after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancelled his visit to Delhi amid a surge in COVID-19 infections there, UK government added India to its travel ‘red list’ of countries with surge in new coronavirus variant cases.
Great Britain has detected 103 cases of a new variant first identified in India, the “vast majority” of which are linked to international travel, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs in parliament on Monday.
“We’ve been analysing samples from these cases to see if this variant has any concerning characteristics, like greater transmissibility or resistance to treatments and vaccines, meaning that it needs to be listed as a variant of concern,” he said.
“After studying the data and on a precautionary basis, we’ve made the difficult but vital decision to add India to the red list.”
India’s addition to the list means that, from 4am on Friday, people who are not UK or Irish residents or British citizens cannot enter the UK if they’ve been in India in the previous 10 days.
People from these groups who have been in India within the last 10 days will have to quarantine in a UK hotel for 10 days on arrival.