Covid Live: New version ‘could pose considerable risk’ as more countries impose travel restrictions, says Savid Javid

This is a reminder to all of us that this pandemic is not over, Javid says.

He added that we must continue to act with caution and do everything possible to keep the virus at bay, including your booster shot.

He says the booster jab was already important before I learned about this new version, but it couldn’t be more important now.

Six countries from Friday afternoon- South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia and Zimbabwe – Travel will be put on the red list, Javid says.

They say anyone who is not a UK or Irish resident who has lived in one of these countries in the past ten days will be denied entry into England.

He says UK and Irish residents arriving from these countries will enter hotel quarantine from 4am on Sunday.

They say anyone arriving before those dates should get a PCR test done on the second and eighth day, even if they have been vaccinated, and isolate themselves at home with the rest of their household.

If you have come from any of these countries in the last ten days, Test and Trace will contact you to take the PCR test, he says.

But don’t wait to get in touch – you should get a PCR test done immediately, he adds.

We should move quickly and at the earliest, says Javid.

He says the UK is in a strong position to reopen during the summer and because of an ongoing booster programme.

They say that we should act with caution.

We are also concerned about rising cases in countries in southern Africa, Javid says, especially as these populations must have significant natural immunity.

In South AfricaThere has been a rapid increase, with a four-fold increase in cases in the last two weeks, he says.

In Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria, some 80% of cases, when tested with a PCR test, caused what is known as S gene dropout, which we associate with this type, he says. .

So while we do not yet know for sure whether the exponential growth of cases in South Africa is directly linked to this type, this PCR test analysis indicates that there may be many more cases than those yet sequenced, they say.

Javid says it has many features of the Alpha, Beta and Delta variants.

Early signs suggest that the variant may be more permeable than Delta, and that current vaccines may be less effective against it.

It may even affect the effectiveness of one of our major treatments, he says.

We are concerned that this new variant may pose a substantial risk to public health, Javid says.

They state that the variant has an unusually large number of mutations.

Yesterday, the UK Health Protection Agency classified the variant under investigation as a new variant, and the Variant Technical Group designated it as a new variant under investigation with very high priority, he says.

This is the only version with this designation, Javid says, giving it a higher priority than beta.

Further cases have been identified South Africa and Botswana, he says, and it is highly likely that it has now spread to other countries.

Javid says this is a fast-moving situation and there remains a high degree of uncertainty.

Version sequence – B.1.1.529 – was first uploaded from the case of someone traveling by Hong Kong South Africa, he says.

He says the UK was the first to recognize the threat from this new version and alert international partners.

Javid says very few cases of a new variant have been detected in the international genomic database in the last 48 hours.

He said that no cases have been reported in the UK at this time.

But this version is of great international concern, he says.

The WHO has called a special meeting this morning which is happening now, he says.

The UK’s health secretary, Sajid Javid, will soon make a statement to the Commons, giving an update on version B.1.1.1.529, which experts have called “the most worrying we have seen”.

A meeting is starting very soon in the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the new version. Here’s a look at his statement to the media:

WHO is closely monitoring the recently reported variant B.1.1.1.529. So far less than 100 sequences have been reported. Preliminary analysis suggests that this variant has a large number of mutations that are needed and will undergo further study. We are grateful to the researchers South Africa and experts from WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) which is assessing this variant.

WHO is convening a meeting of TAG-VE today to better understand the timeline of the ongoing studies and to determine whether this variant should be designated as Type of Interest or Type of Concern.

There is no live press conference or anything like that planned at this time, but we are hoping that the outcome of the meeting will be shared with the media later today.