MORE than 20,000 passengers who may have been infected with a powerful new Covid strain arrived from India as Boris Johnson delayed imposing a travel ban.
The country was not added to the red list until April 23 – almost a month after the variant was first detected in the UK.
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The PM on Thursday warned that the planned easing of lockdown restrictions on June 21 could be delayed amid fears of a new wave of infection sparked by the strain.
The variant, named B.1.617.2, is thought to be more transmissible than the Kent strain that drove the UK’s devastating second wave of infections in January – though scientists do not believe it is resistant to vaccines.
Senior government sources told the Sunday Times that Brits could face an agonising wait to know whether Step Four of lockdown easing could go ahead.
The insider suggested the decision may not be made until “a week before” the planned unlocking – plunging music festivals, summer holidays and other large-scale events into uncertainty.
Ministers have been accused of not shutting Britain’s borders in time to prevent the variant entering the country, despite the situation in India spiralling into a humanitarian catastrophe in late March.
Infections more than trebled in India from 72,330 on March 31 to 217,353 on April 15 – prompting the government to place neighbouring Bangladesh and Pakistan onto the red list on April 2.
The measures did not come into force until a week later – though India was still left off the list.
The PM had hoped to fly to Delhi on April 25 to meet Indian PM Narendra Modi to discuss post-Brexit trade, but the trip was called off on April 19 as hospitalisations surged in the country.
Shortly after, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons the country would be placed on the red list.
But the decision was not implemented until April 23, despite Downing Street’s previous insistence that countries could be added to the list with a few hours notice.
The move prompted a surge in demand for flights between India and the UK.
Travel website Skyscanner reported a 250 per cent rise in searches for flights as families desperately tried to beat the deadline.
And figures from the Civil Aviation Authority show that an average of 900 people were arriving from India between April 2 and 23. Over 20,000 people in total entered the UK from the country during this period.
The B1.617.2 variant was first detected in a traveller who arrived from India in the week ending March 29.
Public Health England data shows that at least 122 passengers arriving from Mumbai and Delhi between the end of March and April 26 were carrying the strain – though it was not designated a “variant of concern” until May 7.
Anyone arriving from India during this period would have had to self-isolate but could have done so at home rather than in a government-approved quarantine hotel.
A source involved in discussions over how to thwart the variant’s spread in the UK told the Sunday Times: “It’s very clear that we should have closed the border to India earlier and that Boris did not do so because he didn’t want to offend Modi.”
Meanwhile, government advisers are reported to have pushed for Step Three of unlocking to be pushed back amid fears over the spread of the strain.
From Monday, up to six people will be allowed to mix indoors and the hospitality industry allowed to serve indoors. Foreign holidays to a restricted number of countries will also be permitted.
One source told the Sunday Times that advisers “pushed for a delay in fully opening the pubs of four to five weeks”, but ministers decided to proceed as the modelling was “unconvincing’” and the variant was sparking a surge in cases but not deaths.
According to the newspaper, cabinet secretary Michael Gove pushed for tougher restrictions in areas hard-hit by the variant – though this was opposed by Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth on Thursday blasted the government for not closing the UK’s border to India more quickly.
The Labour MP said: “People across the country will be deeply concerned and tonight’s news brings into sharp focus Boris Johnson’s reckless failure to protect our borders in this crisis.
“Only a few weeks ago we urged Matt Hancock to designate this a variant of concern and respond with speed and resolve.”
