In a significant move, Dubai on Sunday eased travel restrictions and allowed residents from certain countries, including India and South Africa, to enter the city from June 23, report said.
However, the report said that only those passengers would be allowed to enter the city if they have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine approved by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It must be mentioned here that UAE nationals, holders of UAE Golden Visas and members of diplomatic missions are exempted from this requirement.
As per the report, there are four COVID-19 vaccines currently approved by the UAE government – Sinopharm, Pfizer-BioNTech, Sputnik V and Oxford-AstraZeneca.
However, passengers travelling to Dubai from India are required to undergo a rapid PCR test four hours prior to departure. They must undergo another RT-PCR test on arrival in Dubai. It also said that Indian passengers would need to undergo institutional quarantine until they receive their PCR test result, which will arrive within 24 hours.
Passenger flights from India have remained banned by the UAE since late April in view of the surging second wave of coronavirus here. Later, the UAE had also closed its borders for travellers from Pakistan, Bangladesh and other southeast Asian countries.
Following the ease of restrictions, the Emirates airline said that it will resume flights connecting India, South Africa and Nigeria to Dubai from June 23.
“Emirates welcomes the latest protocols and measures announced by Dubai’s Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management to allow the safe resumption of passenger travel from South Africa, Nigeria and India to Dubai and onwards,” it said.
Though the ban on Indian passengers was scheduled to end in May, it was extended on multiple occasions as a result of a surge in COVID-19 cases in country.
“Passengers who have transited through India in the last 14 days will not be accepted to travel from any other point to the UAE,” the UAE order read.
“UAE nationals, holders of UAE Golden Visas and members of diplomatic missions who comply with the revised published COVID-19 protocols will be exempt for travel”.
