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New UK Covid measures to be announced to tackle Omicron spread

Prime minister to set out new rules as health officials race to track down those infected with Covid variant


Boris Johnson is to announce further measures to curb the spread of coronavirus after two cases of the Omicron variant were detected in the UK.

Four more African countries will be added to the government’s red list with immediate effect from Sunday and Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has ordered targeted testing in two areas in England.

Javid said the prime minister will “set out further measures” during a Downing Street press conference later on Saturday.

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Related: What should the UK do now? Experts on responses to the new Covid variant

The moves come after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said two cases of the new variant, which is feared to have a higher re-infection rate, had been discovered in England.

Travellers arriving in England from midday on Friday who have been in red-listed countries within the last 10 days will have to self isolate and take PCR tests. After 4am on Sunday, they will have to quarantine in a managed hotel.

The two people infected and members of their households have been told to enter self-isolation. One case was detected in Brentwood, Essex, and another in Nottingham. Health officials are racing to track down people with whom the two individuals have recently been in contact.

The UKHSA confirmed the cases after genomic sequencing overnight. A government source confirmed the two cases were linked and involved travel to southern Africa.

On Saturday, health officials began carrying out targeted testing at locations where the positive cases were likely to have been infectious.

Javid said “this is a real reminder that this pandemic is far from over” as he urged people to get their vaccines, including boosters.

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“We were concerned from the moment we first identified this new variant,” he added. Javid did not say what further measures would be added ahead of Christmas.

Some health leaders and scientists have been calling on the government to introduce its plan B for more than a month after Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents the healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, told the Guardian that immediate action was required on 20 October.

Downing Street has so far resisted adopting the plan, which includes compulsory face masks in some settings, asking people to work from home and introducing vaccine passports. Johnson will address the nation alongside the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, and England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, at 5pm on Saturday.

Javid said that anyone who had travelled in the last 10 days to the 10 countries now on the red list – with Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Angola due to be added to South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Zimbabwe and Namibia – must self-isolate and take PCR tests.

“If anyone has travelled to these four countries or any of the other red-listed countries in the last four days then they must self-isolate and take PCR tests,” Javid said. “We’ve always been very clear that we won’t hesitate to take further action if that is what is required.

“Today I can announce one thing that we are doing immediately is carrying out targeted testing and sequencing of positive cases in the two areas that are affected.”

Whitty said: “We will continue to work closely with the international community to quickly gather and analyse information on this variant to understand any possible increase in transmissibility or resistance to vaccines.”

The UK is the second European country to have reported the presence of Omicron after Belgium said it had identified a single case on Friday.

Ministers said that from 4am on Sunday, non-UK and non-Irish residents who had been in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia or Angola in the previous 10 days would be refused entry into England.

Those permitted to return will be ordered to isolate in a government-approved facility for 10 days. South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe were added to the red list on Friday, and the UK imposed a ban on flights leaving from those nations.