Cape Town in South Africa is a popular destination for British touristsImage caption: Cape Town in South Africa is a popular destination for British tourists
The UK health secretary's decision to ban flights from South Africa over concerns of a new variant detected there "seems to have been rushed", South Africa's foreign ministry says.
"Our immediate concern is the damage that this decision will cause to both the tourism industries and businesses of both countries," Naledi Pandor said in a statement.
He said the move had come before the World Health Organization (WHO) had issued any guidance on the matter, and that his country would work with the UK authorities to try to get the ban lifted as soon as possible.
The UK is South Africa's largest source for tourists outside of the continent, with more than 400,000 visitors arriving there per year before the pandemic.
Travellers arriving in England from several southern African countries will have to quarantine amid warnings over a new coronavirus variant.
UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid said from 12:00 GMT on Friday six countries would be added to the red list, with flights being temporarily banned.
One expert described the variant, known as B.1.1.529, as "the worst one we've seen so far", and there is concern it has the potential to evade immunity.
No cases have been confirmed in the UK.
Only 59 confirmed cases have been identified in South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana so far.
Mr Javid said that scientists were "deeply concerned" about the new variant but more needed to be learned about it.
But he said the variant has a significant number of mutations, "perhaps double the number of mutations that we have seen in the Delta variant".
He added: "And that would suggest that it may well be more transmissible and the current vaccines that we have may well be less effective."
He said adding the six countries to the red list was about "being cautious and taking action and trying to protect. as best we can, our borders".
From 12:00 on Friday non-UK and Irish residents will be banned from entering England if they have been in the six countries in the past 10 days.
Any British or Irish resident arriving from the countries after 04:00 on Sunday will have to quarantine in a hotel, with those returning before that being asked to isolate at home.
Those who have returned in the last 10 days are being asked to take a PCR test by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
The flight ban will remain in place until the hotel quarantine system is up and running.
One scientist told me this was the worst variant they'd seen - look at it on paper and it's not hard to see why.
It is the most heavily mutated variant so far and is now radically different to the form that emerged in Wuhan, China.
That means vaccines, which were designed using the original, may not be as effective.
And some of its mutations are known to increase the ability of coronaviruses to spread.
But there have been many variants that looked bad on paper before, but haven't taken off.
There are early signs this virus is spreading in South Africa and may already be in every province in the country.
But the big questions - how much does it evade vaccines, is it more severe, does it spread faster that Delta - are unanswerable for now.
BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding said scientists in South Africa were trying to understand the mutations of the new variant.
He said there was unhappiness at the new red listing by other countries, with scientists saying the country needed more support and more reward for spotting the new variant.
Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) are meeting South African officials on Friday to assess the evolving situation in the country.
The new variant, which has been designated a new variant under investigation by the UKHSA, is heavily mutated and the confirmed cases are mostly concentrated in one province in South Africa.
Scientists say the variant has 50 mutations overall and more than 30 on the spike protein, which is the target of most vaccines and the key the virus uses to unlock the doorway into our body's cells.
Experts in South Africa have said the variant is "very different" to others that have circulated, with concerns that it could be more transmissible but also able to get around parts of the immune system.
Prof Ravi Gupta, from the University of Cambridge, said the new variant had the potential to escape immunity and have increased infectivity.
Imperial College London's Prof Neil Ferguson said it was concerning the new variant appeared to be "driving a rapid increase in case numbers in South Africa" and said the move to restrict travel was "prudent".
But he said it was not clear if the variant was more transmissible or resistant to vaccines and therefore it was too early to judge the risk it poses.
At the moment around 500 and 700 people are travelling to the UK from South Africa each day, but this figure was likely to have increased as the festive period began.
British Airways said it was contacting affected customers and Virgin Atlantic said it would be reviewing its schedule for South Africa for the coming week, with flights from Johannesburg to Heathrow cancelled between 12:00 on Friday and 04:00 on Sunday.
Each UK nation sets its own policy but they have generally followed the same rules for past announcements.
Scotland is following the UK government's decision, with anyone arriving from the six countries having to self-isolate and take two PCR tests, while hotel quarantine will be in place from 04:00 GMT on Saturday.
Currently people travelling to the UK who are fully vaccinated do not need to take a Covid test before setting off but do need to take a lateral flow test two days after arrival and fill out a passenger locator form.
Those who are not fully vaccinated and are over 18 must self-isolate at home for 10 days and take a Covid test in the three days before travelling as well as on day two and day eight of their return.
Dr Tom Peacock of Imperial College London said the variant ‘could be of real concern’ but may just be an ‘odd cluster’.Photograph: Brain Light/Alamy
Scientists have said a new Covid variant that carries an “extremely high number” of mutations may drive further waves of disease by evading the body’s defences.
Only 10 cases in three countries have been confirmed by genomic sequencing, but the variant has sparked serious concern among some researchers because a number of the mutations may help the virus evade immunity.
The B.1.1.529 variant has 32 mutations in the spike protein, the part of the virus that most vaccines use to prime the immune system against Covid. Mutations in the spike protein can affect the virus’s ability to infect cells and spread, but also make it harder for immune cells to attack the pathogen.
The variant was first spotted in Botswana, where three cases have now been sequenced. Six more have been confirmed in South Africa, and one in Hong Kong in a traveller returning from South Africa.
Dr Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, posted details of the new variant on a genome-sharing website, noting that the “incredibly high amount of spike mutations suggest this could be of real concern”.
In a series of tweets, Peacock said it “very, very much should be monitored due to that horrific spike profile”, but added that it may turn out to be an “odd cluster” that is not very transmissible. “I hope that’s the case,” he wrote.
Dr Meera Chand, the Covid-19 incident director at the UK Health Security Agency, saidthat in partnership with scientific bodies around the globe, the agency was constantly monitoring the status of Sars-CoV-2 variants as they emerge and develop worldwide.
“As it is in the nature of viruses to mutate often and at random, it is not unusual for small numbers of cases to arise featuring new sets of mutations. Any variants showing evidence of spread are rapidly assessed,” she said.
The first cases of the variant were collected in Botswana on 11 November, and the earliest in South Africa was recorded three days later. The case found in Hong Kong was a 36-year-old man who had a negative PCR test before flying from Hong Kong to South Africa, where he stayed from 22 October to 11 November. He tested negative on his return to Hong Kong, but tested positive on 13 November while in quarantine.
England no longer has a red list to impose restrictions on travellers arriving from abroad. People who are not fully vaccinated must test negative before flying and arrange two PCR tests on arrival. Those who are fully vaccinated need to have a Covid test within two days of landing.
Scientists will be watching the new variant for any sign that it is gaining momentum and spreading more widely. Some virologists in South Africa are already concerned, particularly given the recent rise in cases in Gauteng, an urban area containing Pretoria and Johannesburg, where B.1.1.529 cases have been detected.
Ravi Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at Cambridge University, said work in his lab found that two of the mutations on B.1.1.529 increased infectivity and reduced antibody recognition. “It does certainly look a significant concern based on the mutations present,” he said. “However, a key property of the virus that is unknown is its infectiousness, as that is what appears to have primarily driven the Delta variant. Immune escape is only part of the picture of what may happen.”
Prof Francois Balloux, the director of the UCL Genetics Institute, said the large number of mutations in the variant apparently accumulated in a “single burst”, suggesting it may have evolved during a chronic infection in a person with a weakened immune system, possibly an untreated HIV/Aids patient.
“I would definitely expect it to be poorly recognised by neutralising antibodies relative to Alpha or Delta,” he said. “It is difficult to predict how transmissible it may be at this stage. For the time being it should be closely monitored and analysed, but there is no reason to get overly concerned unless it starts going up in frequency in the near future.”
Health minister Greg Hunt says officials were assessing the threat but had advised there was ‘no basis for change’ to border arrangements at this stage
Edited by Yvette Tan BBC
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