Government scientists had warned that only mandatory hotel quarantine for all travellers would stop new coronavirus strains from arriving in the country weeks before it emerged that the South African variant was spreading.

Boris Johnson announced limited hotel quarantine measures last week for travellers from 30 ‘high-risk’ countries in an attempt to keep mutant variants of Covid-19 out of the UK.

But according to the Times, Downing Street had been advised by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) a week earlier, on January 21, that ‘geographically targeted travel bans’ would not be enough to prevent the arrival of new strains.

The scientists said that the only way to ‘get close’ to keeping the country free of more infectious mutant variants was by either closing the borders completely or introducing mandatory quarantine measures for everyone arriving to Britain.

Minutes from the meeting state the emergence of new variants presents a ‘rationale for attempting to reduce importation of even small numbers of infectious cases’ especially if new variants ‘are capable of immune escape’.

The scientists said measures would be likely to delay the importation of new strains rather than prevent them altogether, before setting out what could be done to achieve this.

‘No intervention, other than a complete, pre-emptive closure of borders, or the mandatory quarantine of all visitors upon arrival in designated facilities, irrespective of testing history, can get close to fully preventing the importation of new cases or new variants,’ the minutes state.

‘Reactive, geographically targeted travel bans cannot be relied upon to stop importation of new variants due to the lag between the emergence and identification of variants of concern, as well as the potential for indirect travel via a third country.’

According to Politico, Downing Street is denying that Sage advised the PM to close borders and introduce a blanket quarantine, saying Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance never once suggested to Mr Johnson that he should adopt either proposal.

Although the minutes of the meeting show SAGE did warn this was the only way to stop new variants getting in, No10 say scientists did not actually make any policy recommendations, instead leaving the call up to the PM.

Metro.co.uk has contacted Downing Street for further comment.

Yesterday it was revealed at least 11 cases of the South African variant of coronavirus have been detected that are not linked to international travel, prompting concerns the mutation may be spreading in communities.

A door-to-door testing blitz of 80,000 people in England is aiming to find ‘every single case’ of the South Africa coronavirus variant in a bid to stop the spread of the more infectious strain.

Mobile testing units and home testing kits will be deployed to areas where the variant has been discovered as the Government looks to prevent it getting a foothold.

Matt Hancock told a Downing Street press conference: ‘It’s a big effort getting this new variant … essentially finding every single case of it, that is the goal.’

Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called for the Home Office to ‘reverse this reckless policy of leaving our borders unlocked and open to further risk’.

He said: ‘Ministers have knowingly left the UK border open and potentially exposed people to new strains of the virus, in direct contradiction of their own Government scientists’ advice.

‘This puts the gains of the vaccine at risk, with disastrous consequences for people’s lives.

‘The Home Secretary needs to come to Parliament urgently and reverse this reckless policy of leaving our Borders unlocked and open to further risk.’

The eight postcode areas at the epicentre of the intensified testing programme are: Hanwell, west London; Tottenham, north London; Mitcham, south London; Walsall in the West Midlands; Broxbourne, Hertfordshire; Maidstone, Kent; Woking, Surrey; and Southport, Merseyside.

To date, 105 cases of the South African variant have been identified in the UK since December 22 but most had links to travel.

Experts believe the 11 new cases may have second or third generation links to travel but detailed investigations have not identified any such links.

Mr Hancock said the the door-to-door testing regime, along with enhanced contact tracing efforts, was an attempt to ‘come down on it hard’.

It was ‘absolutely vital’ that people minimise all social contact in the areas where South African cases had been identified, he added.

Public Health England (PHE) is studying whether those who have already had the vaccine could need a booster shot ‘a bit like the annual flu vaccine’ to help protect them against Covid-19 mutations, such as the South Africa, Brazil and Kent variants.

The South African variant is thought to be as transmissible as the variant that was first identified in Kent but there is no evidence yet that it causes more severe disease.

Dr Susan Hopkins from Public Health England (PHE) said three different vaccines trialled so far had shown effectiveness against the South African variant at a level higher than the minimum standard set by the World Health Organisation and the US Food and Drug Administration.

‘We expect all other vaccines to have a similar level of effectiveness, particularly in reducing hospitalisation and death,’ she said, adding that laboratory studies were being carried out to provide further evidence.

Nine in 10 people over 80 have now been vaccinated, with over half of those in their 70s receiving a jab.

Data up to January 31 shows 9,296,367 first doses of the vaccine have been given, a rise of 319,038 in 24 hours.

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