UK defends delay on adding India to red list travel ban

Prime Minister Boris Johnson gives an update on the Covid-19 pandemic during a virtual press conference in the new Downing Street Briefing Room on Friday. Pic/AFP

The UK government came under strong criticism on Sunday for not adding India to the ‘red list' travel ban at the same time as Pakistan and Bangladesh in early April, which is feared as a major factor behind a rapid spike in cases of Covid-19's B1.617.2 variant first identified in India.

Downing Street said it had taken ‘precautionary action' to ban travel from India on April 23, six days before the B1.617 variant was put under investigation and two weeks before its highly transmissible subtype, B1.617.2, was labelled a Variant of Concern (VOC).

According to Public Health England (PHE) data, around 20,000 people travelled between India and the UK before the red list ban and around 122 of them arriving from Delhi and Mumbai between late March and April 26 were detected with the VOC. "Prior to India being placed on the red list in April, anyone coming to the UK had to test negative and quarantine for 10 days," a UK government spokesperson said.

However, the Opposition Labour Party attacked the government for a delay in acting when the variant first emerged at the end of March.

"This was not inevitable. They should have put India on the red list. We've had this three-week period in which thousands of people have returned from India, including probably hundreds of cases of the variant," said Yvette Cooper, senior Labour MP and Chair of Commons Home Affairs Committee. "When they did finally add India to the red list - two weeks after they'd added Pakistan on April 9 - they gave travellers four days' notice to rush back. Why didn't they introduce additional testing for those travellers before they were able to get on public transport home," she questioned.

‘US schools must use masks'

Schools in the US should continue to use masks for the 2020-2021 academic year as all students will not be fully vaccinated, US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Saturday.

6,77,387
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

16,15,13,458
Total no. of cases worldwide

33,52,109
Total no. of deaths worldwide

Source: WHO/Johns Hopkins

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