Travel restrictions are being re-imposed and flights again are being disrupted by Covid-19 as concerns over the new Omicron variant that was first detected in South Africa continue to grow.
“Since we don’t have a multilateral coordination and harmonisation in responding to new Covid-19 strains, the unilateral actions done by the governments to date also put airlines and passengers back to square one in terms of recovery of air traffic volumes and restoring of passenger confidence to travel,” Linus Benjamin Bauer, founder and managing director of Bauer Aviation Advisory, and visiting lecturer at the City University of London, told Arabian Business.
The UK said that anyone entering the UK will require a PCR test by the end of the second day after their arrival. Self-isolation is necessary until a negative result is received. Anyone who comes into contact with a suspected Omicron case will also be required to self-isolate for 10 days, regardless of a person’s vaccination status.
The UAE is home to some 120,000 British expats with many preparing to travel home during the festive season as travel restrictions barred many from traveling home last year.
Dubai’s Emirates airline issued new travel restrictions for seven African nations. All travellers departing from or transiting Botswana, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa will not be accepted for travel into Dubai from November 27 until further notice. Saudi Arabia will allow entry to travelers from all countries as long as they have received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine inside the kingdom. The day before, Saudi Arabia suspended flights from seven African countries due to the Omicron variant.
UAE citizens, members of diplomatic missions, official delegations and those with golden residence visas arriving in the UAE from those seven nations are excluded.
However, those who are exempt will need to present a negative Covid-19 test obtained within 48 hours of departure, take a rapid PCR test at the airport within six hours of departure and perform another PCR test at the airport when arriving in the UAE. A 10-day quarantine and a PCR test on the ninth day of entering the country will be required as well.
The new Omicron strain has been designated a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organisation. Outside South Africa, cases have been found in the UK, Belgium, Botswana, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Czech Republic and Hong Kong.
Countries from Israel, South Korea and Australia have imposed new restrictions due to concerns over the new variant.
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