UK Gov advise against travel in or out of English variant hotspots, after Welsh Gov say they haven’t considered it

The UK Government had advised against travel in and out of Bolton last Friday – with the revelation coming just hours after the Welsh Government said they hadn’t considered the move.

According to the new UK Government guidance, journeys to and from areas affected by the Indian variant throughout the UK should be avoided, “unless essential”.

The information is believed to have been published at Gov.uk last Friday, but does not appear to have been accompanied by an official announcement, according to Manchester Evening News.

The move comes just hours after Wales’ new Health Minister Eluned Morgan said they did not have any plans to follow Scotland’s lead and ban travel to and from English Covid hotspots such as Bolton.

However, Eluned Morgan said that they were keeping the situation under review. She said that there was “no decision to restrict travel to hotspots to England”.

The move in England has caused confusion however as it was not preceded but an official announcement and seems to have caught the country’s regional politicians off guard.

Bolton is to believed to have some of the highest levels of the so-called Indian variant in the UK. It has a rolling 7-day infection rate of 450.7 cases per 100,000 residents.

The new government guidance says: “The new Covid-19 variant spreads more easily from person to person. To help stop the spread, you should take particular caution when meeting anyone outside your household or support bubble.

“In the areas listed, wherever possible, you should try to meet outside rather than inside where possible, keep two metres apart from people that you don’t live with (unless you have formed a support bubble with them), this includes friends and family you don’t live with, [and] avoid travelling in and out of affected areas unless it is essential, for example for work (if you cannot work from home) or education.”

The guidance applies to Bedford, Blackburn and Darwen, Bolton, Burnley, Kirklees, Leicester, Hounslow, and North Tyneside.