Britain’s government has banned travel from South America and Portugal to ensure a new variant of COVID-19 found in Brazil doesn’t derail the country’s vaccination program, although there are no signs the variant has reached the U.K.Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the ban, which took effect Friday morning, was extended to Portugal because many people who come to Europe from South America travel through Portugal.“We don’t have cases at the moment, but this is a precautionary approach,” Shapps told the BBC. “We want to make sure that we do everything possible so that vaccine rollout can continue and make sure that it’s not disturbed by other variants of this virus.” COVID-19 variant may not be deadlier, but we shouldn’t dismiss it,.