Javid was speaking in the House of Commons on Friday (26 November) about the sudden decision to place six countries, including South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, on the red list from noon on Friday.
This requires travellers to go into hotel quarantine when arriving in the UK from 4am on Sunday (28 November).
Javid said the decision was necessary to protect the UK against a new variant of Covid, known as B.1.1.529, which was only identified in South Africa earlier this week.
