A large-scale screening operation was launched on Monday by health officials in eight regions of England, where cases of a version of coronovirus that appeared in South Africa have been detected.

Around 80,000 people live in the affected areas (London, West Midlands, East, South East and parts of North West).

Matters unrelated to travel

Since 22 December, 105 cases of this type are likely to be more contagious, against which some current vaccines seem less effective, according to the British Department of Health. In recent times, eleven cases can be identified without any link to travel.

“It is important that we do everything we can to stop the transmission of this version,” Health Minister Matt Hancock said in a statement. Since detecting the first cases of this version in the United Kingdom in late December, the government has banned all direct air links from South Africa and closed its borders from about thirty countries deemed at risk .

Nine million people vaccinated in Britain

These restrictions should soon be added so as to make a mandatory quarantine provision in hotels for travelers from these countries, for whom entry into British territory cannot be denied, as are exclusively resident in the United Kingdom.

Already confronted with a more contagious version that led to the outbreak of the epidemic, and a third imprisonment, the United Kingdom, which has already vaccinated around nine million people, intends to fight against the importation of new variants Which would be more contagious and against which current vaccines would be less effective. Coronoviruses have killed more than 106,000 in Britain, the toughest country in Europe.