FOREIGN holidays are at risk from a new mutation of Covid which has spread to Europe.
Officials fear a variant first seen in Nepal is resistant to vaccines – and Government scientists are already warning ministers of the strain’s dangers.
Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest updates
Whitehall sources told the Daily Mail there will be just a few additions to the travel green list amid concern Brits’ hard work could yet be undone.
And it’s claimed there are even fears Portugal could lose its green status on Thursday as the Nepal variant may have been detected there.
However, a member of Sage said the UK need not be overly concerned just yet.
“There are thousands of variants,” he said.
“This is a virus that is changing all the time.”
And Tory peer Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, chairman of the Airport Operators’ Association, told the publication: “How many more variants have we got to be worried about?
“What matters is data and the success of our vaccination programme.”
Currently, it’s expected that eight more countries will be added to the green list this week.
Travel expert Paul Charles believes that both the Canary and the Balearic Islands in Spain could be added, along with Malta and Morocco.
But some sources say additions to the list will be “extremely limited” as a result of concern over the Nepal strain and the slower rollout of vaccines across Europe.
It means holidays in Europe may be restricted until August.
Ministers reportedly believe that’s the month there’ll be a huge reboot for travel abroad.
In brighter news, it’s believed the Balearic Islands will go on the green list on Thursday – after Britain’s ambassador to Spain suggested there was a “good chance”.
Mainland Spain is likely to remain on the amber list until July 20.
And Boris Johnson said he wouldn’t hesitate to put more countries on the amber and red lists.
The PM said Brits must be “cautious” over their holidays.
“We’ve got to continue to put countries on the red list, on the amber list, when that is necessary and I want you to know we will have no hesitation in moving countries from the green list to the amber list, to the red list, if we have to do so,” he said.
“The priority is to continue the vaccine rollout to protect the people of this country.”
Hospitals in Nepal are on the brink of collapse after a tragic spike in Covid cases.
The number of new infections recorded a day had fallen to fewer than 100 in March.
But by mid-May, more than 9,000 new cases were being recorded a day.
Nepal’s second wave has been fuelled by a huge rise in infections in neighbouring India, which has recorded the worst daily death tolls since the pandemic began.
But now experts say yet another worrying variant has been identified.
Despite fears over the spread of the Indian mutation, which is becoming the UK’s dominant strain, the PM has been told to “get on with it” and lift lockdown entirely on June 21.
Tory grandee Sir Iain Duncan Smith has told the PM to ignore Nicola Sturgeon and “nervous scientists” and plough ahead with ‘Freedom Day’ as planned.
He said he has a “horrible feeling” stage four won’t go ahead – because “everyone is very jittery” in the wake of Dominic Cummings’ evidence about the Government response.
Urging ministers to “go ahead with June 21”, he said many are listening to “nervous” scientists “peddling assumptions”.
“They keep saying: ‘We’re going to listen to the science’,” he said.
“But they’re not – they’re listening to the scientists. The science is what you make of it. We haven’t seen any uptick in hospitalisations.”
