Iran’s minister of health has slammed the British government and healthcare authorities for failing to tell the global community about a new fast-spreading Covid-19 variant until two months had passed.
Speaking on Wednesday, Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki hit out at the UK after it announced only last week that a strain of Covid-19, found in Britain, could be up to 70 percent more contagious.
“Unfortunately, Britain was late to make the revelation to the world, one and a half to two months after it had identified new cases of the mutated virus,” Namaki told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Tehran.
The minister announced that all passengers who have arrived in Iran from the UK were being closely monitored.
“We have a list of people who have entered the country from Britain in the last two weeks and we are monitoring them, and we have not found any trace of the mutated virus in Iran so far,” Namaki said.
The minister added that all people arriving from Europe needed to show evidence of a negative Covid-19 test and were being told to isolate for two weeks.The mutant strain of the virus has not yet been identified in Iran.
Iran has been one of the worst hit nations by Covid-19, rarely experiencing a respite in the fight against the virus.
However, like many other nations, Iran is keen to keep out the new “highly contagious” strain of Covid-19, which is prevalent in the UK.
Since the UK announced the characteristics of the new strain and its link with soaring cases in the South East, many nations have closed their borders to people in Britain.
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