Passengers on last flights from South Africa before ban say there were 'no additional precautions' | Daily Mail Online
Passengers arriving into the UK on one of the last flights from
South Africa have revealed they were not offered tests and left to mix with hundreds of other passengers despite the country being a hotbed of the new super-mutant 'jab-dodging' Botswana Covid variant.
Health Secretary
Sajid Javid has announced that flights from South Africa - as well as Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe - will be suspended from midday today. They have all been placed on the red list.
But today, passengers arriving from Johannesburg - the capital of the province of Gauteng where the variant was first identified - were subjected to 'no additional precautions', according to one of the people on the flight - one of three arriving at Heathrow before the ban comes into force.
The UK's lax contrasted with the approach in the
Netherlands, where a video showed passengers arriving in Amsterdam being told they would not be allowed to leave the plane. They will be tested before being allowed to go home.
Meanwhile, one caller to the Jeremy Vine Show said her daughter was bypassing the ban by travelling back from South Africa via Egypt. 'She's managed to find a flight to Cairo and then from Cairo to Heathrow to get her back tomorrow,' the woman said, before adding: 'She doesn't want to stay in a hotel when she gets back.'