The UAE’s business and expat community sighed with relief as it was announced on Wednesday night that the Emirates would be upgraded to the UK amber travel list after 188 days.
The new mandate, active from Sunday August 8, means that fully vaccinated travellers from the UAE – and all other amber countries – will no longer be legally required to book a stay in a quarantine hotel for 10 days at a rising cost of £2,285.
While fully vaccinated travellers from the US and the EU can now skip quarantine in the UK if they have one of four approved vaccines – Moderna, AstraZeneca, Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson – it remains unclear when fully vaccinated travellers from the UAE will qualify for the same exemption.
Fully vaccinated travellers from the US and the EU can now skip quarantine in the UK if they have one of four approved vaccines
Instead, travellers from amber list destinations who are not vaccinated, or have received doses of other manufacturers’ vaccines, must self-isolate for 10 days, but this can be done at home, with friends or at a hotel. That period can be shortened if they pay for an extra Covid test on day five.
A ‘raw deal’ for UAE residents?
In the UAE, US-regulated Pfizer and Chinese-regulated Sinopharm are the most-widely used vaccines, which raises questions about when and if Sinopharm will be approved for use in the UK travel programme.
A UK Department of Health spokesperson confirmed to Arabian Business that Britain is only recognising vaccines approved by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), European Medicines Agency (EMA) or the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the foreseeable future.
As the UAE’s long-suffering airlines and tourism agencies can now draw in British tourists the amber list, move will undoubtedly be welcomed. However, it’s less clear how the new mandate will significantly benefit UAE expats.
“On the face of it, one could argue that UAE travellers get a bit of a raw deal here because the new rules significantly benefit UK travellers… however, it’s still quite a cumbersome process for UAE visitors to visit Britain, ” a spokesperson for UK-based StrategicAero research told Arabian Business.
However, given that the Pfizer vaccine is approved in the UK, EU and US and has been widely used in the UAE, there may be a “slim chance” that Pfizer-vaccinated UAE residents could eventually be allowed to enter the UK with no restrictions, the spokesperson added.
Will Sinopharm be accepted?
The World Health Organisation approved China’s Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use in May, potentially signalling a green light for the vaccine to be accepted by the UK government in the future.
The vaccine was also used, along with the four other approved inoculations, in the 10-day trial carried out by British Airways (BA), Virgin Atlantic and Heathrow Airport where they checked the vaccination status of passengers.
The trial accepted proof of vaccination through several means, including America’s CDC card, US state-level digital certification, and the EU Digital Covid Certificate.
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