Scientists had already warned the government that only mandatory hotel quarantine for all travellers would prevent new coronavirus strains from arriving in the country before it emerged that the South African variant was spreading in Britain.
Boris Johnson announced limited hotel quarantine measures last week for travellers from 30 “high-risk” countries in an attempt to stop them from spreading potentially “vaccine-busting” new strains.
The Times can disclose, however, that Downing Street had been advised by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) a week earlier that “geographically targeted travel bans” would not be enough to stop the arrival of new strains.
The scientists said that the only way to “get close” to stopping them was by closing the borders completely or introducing mandatory quarantine measures
