UK's South America travel ban comes into effect

LONDON

A travel ban to the UK from all South American countries and Portugal has entered into force Friday morning.

The ban, which was ordered by the government due to concerns over a new COVID-19 variant originating in Brazil, came into force at 4 a.m.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told SkyNews that the government moved as soon as it had found the new variant after completing genome sequencing -- a process used for finding new mutations.

The new variant, similar to previously discovered Kent and South Africa variants, is thought to have a faster rate of spread.

The UK variant has been seen in more than 50 countries and the South African variant was found in around 20 countries.

The Brazil variant has also been reportedly detected in test results in Japan.

The new travel ban, which the government said a precaution on a possible disruption to its vaccination program, includes Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela, as well as Portugal which has strong travel ties with Brazil.

British and Irish citizens, as well as all those who have residency in the UK, will still be allowed in the country but they will have to quarantine for 10 days.

The UK is suffering the worst COVID-19 death toll in Europe as 86,015 people have died so far, including 1,248 new fatalities reported on Thursday.