Britain will close its borders to travel from South America and Portugal on Friday as concerns grow over a new Covid-19 variant that researchers believe has emerged in the Brazilian Amazon, a region struggling to cope with the disease. .
The variant, which shares similarities to the highly infectious types identified in the UK and South Africa, was reported in Japan earlier this month among a group of travelers who recently returned from the Amazon and was also responsible. for a case of reinfection in the vast Brazilian state of Amazonas, the researchers said.
The UK Department for Transport said on Thursday it would refuse entry early Friday to anyone traveling from or through South America and Portugal in the past 10 days. The ban also includes Panama and the Portuguese-speaking African nation Cape Verde.
“The decision to ban travel to these destinations follows the discovery of a new variant of coronavirus first identified in Brazil, which could have spread to countries with strong travel links to Brazil,” the department said on Thursday.
Amazon’s infectious disease experts have long feared that the affected region could become a breeding ground for virus mutations as the local health system collapses.