The British health secretary said the ban takes effect on Friday. Earlier on Thursday, South African scientists said they had identified a new variant.<\/b>
\nBritain will temporarily ban flights from six African countries starting on Friday, as the nation\u2019s health ministry investigates a new variant of the coronavirus. The nation\u2019s health secretary, Sajid Javid, did not name the countries in a tweet on Thursday. But he said that the six nations will be added to the country\u2019s red list, which would require British travelers coming from those nations to quarantine on arrival. \u201cMore data is needed but we\u2019re taking precautions now,\u201d he said. Earlier on Thursday, scientists in South Africa identified a concerning new variant, whose mutations evidence a \u201cbig jump in evolution.\u201d That variant is driving a spike in new infections there. Since the onset of the pandemic, a number of variants have emerged. One underlying concern about new variants is whether they will stymie progress against the pandemic or whether they will limit the vaccine\u2019s effectiveness. Only weeks ago, Britain announced that it would stop requiring any travelers to quarantine in government-designated hotels, removing the last seven countries from its \u201cred list\u201d for coronavirus risk. That change ended restrictions on passengers arriving from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. Since then, Mr. Javid said that the government would continue to reserve a number of rooms in hotels \u201con standby,\u201d in case quarantine requirements needed to be reinstated.<\/p>\n