TRAVELLERS from the entire continent of South America will be banned from entering the UK from 4am tomorrow in light of the concerns over a Brazilian variant of the coronavirus.

The ban applies to people who have travelled from or through Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela in the last 10 days. It will also apply to Portugal, which has strong travel links to Brazil.

Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said the “urgent decision” to halt flights from the nations was taken to reduce the potential spread of the new strain with experts uncertain how effective existing vaccines will be against it.

The decision, made at a Covid meeting of UK ministers, came just 24 hours after Boris Johnson admitted to being “very concerned” about the Brazilian strain.

During Wednesday’s session of the Commons Liaison Committee, the Prime Minister was pressed by Labour’s Yvette Cooper, who asked him: “You were warned about the Brazil variant three days ago. We don’t know, yet whether that variant could undermine the vaccination programme. Why aren’t you taking immediate action, on a precautionary basis?”

Mr Johnson replied: “We’re putting in extra measures to ensure that people coming from Brazil are checked and indeed stopping people coming from Brazil.”

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Shadow Home Secretary, said the new ban was a necessary step but he said it was “yet another example of government incompetence, lurching from one crisis and rushed announcement to another”.

There will be some exemptions to the new ban such as for hauliers travelling from Portugal to allow the transport of essential goods as well as British and Irish nationals with residence rights. However, they will have to self-isolate for 10 days along with their households after arriving in Britain.

Scientists analysing the Brazilian variant believe the mutations it shares with the new South African strain seem to be associated with a rapid increase in cases in locations where previous attack rates are thought to be very high.

Felipe Naveca from the Brazilian state-run Oswaldo Cruz Foundation told the BBC the new variant was "of concern" and its origin was "undoubtedly" from the Amazon region.

However, while the new variants can spread more quickly, there is no evidence they are more dangerous and scientists are confident vaccines would work against them.

New variants of Covid-19 have previously been identified in the UK and South Africa with many countries imposing restrictions on arrivals from both countries.

The Brazilian authorities banned flights from the UK last month after a separate mutation of Covid-19 was discovered in southeast England. Consequently, there are currently no direct flights from Brazil to the UK although travellers are still able to make the journey by travelling through other countries.

Meanwhile, the Government faced criticism for delaying until Monday the enforcement of a requirement for travellers arriving in England to receive a negative Covid-19 test before departure.

Mr Shapps said the enforcement of the rules had been pushed back “to give international arrivals time to prepare”. The Scottish Government has also delayed the introduction of the policy until Monday.

The requirement for passengers arriving here by boat, train or plane – including UK nationals – to test negative for Covid up to 72 hours before leaving the country of departure was due to come into force at 4am tomorrow.

But it was pushed back until the same time on Monday amid concern that guidance on which tests would be accepted had not been published early enough.

Sir Keir Starmer branded the situation another “complete mess,” saying: “People will be bewildered and they will feel that we’re exposed; there’s a gap in our defences. We can’t go on like this with delayed decisions not being made in a competent way.”

Downing Street defended the delay. The PM’s spokesman said the testing law would come into place on Friday as planned but that a “grace period” would allow passengers “a little bit more time” to get the tests required.

Paul Charles, the boss of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: “This saga is yet another lesson to Government that it takes time to implement major changes to border controls and they can’t be rushed through.

“Consumers have been panicking, and tour operators and airlines inundated with inquiries, since the initial leak about the plans.

“The Government cannot keep creating confusion when it comes to travel restrictions – there needs to be clarity to help build confidence in a sector still struggling to rebuild due to the lockdowns.”

Travellers will need to present proof of a negative test result to their carrier on boarding, while the UK Border Force will conduct spot checks on arrivals.

New arrivals who flout the rules will face a minimum £500 fine while the operator who transported them will also be fined.

Passengers will still have to quarantine for 10 days regardless of their test results.

Travellers will have to take an internationally approved test, and guidance released by the Department for Transport said they could include PCR tests, nasal and throat swab tests, which take between 12 and 24 hours to return results.

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification[Lamp] tests, which can return results in two to three hours, and lateral flow tests, which generate results in less than 30 minutes, are also acceptable.

Results can be produced as physical documents or by email or text but must be in English, French or Spanish. Translations will not be accepted.

British nationals attempting to return home who test positive must not travel and must follow the local guidance in their host country and contact the nearest consulate if they need support.