England has banned visitors from countries near South Africa to stop the spread of the new Covid-19 variant.
This ban becomes effective from Saturday, January 9, 2021.
Visitors from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana, as well as island nations Mauritius and Seychelles, will be affected but British and Irish nationals are exempted.
The restriction also affects Eswatini, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho and Mozambique and will apply to people who have travelled from or through any of the specified countries in the last 10 days.
However, British and Irish nationals will need to follow existing quarantine procedures.
The new measures will be in place for an initial period of two weeks.
It would be recalled that the UK had imposed a ban on travellers from South Africa on 24 December 2020.
Meanwhile, Botswana, and the islands of Seychelles and Mauritius, are being removed from the UK list of safe travel corridors as there is a high frequency of travel between the islands and South Africa.
The new variant of the coronavirus is not in South Africa alone, it is also present in the UK and a few other countries.
