The United Arab Emirates is barring its unvaccinated citizens from traveling overseas, the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) announced Saturday.
The measure, which will take effect on Jan. 10, also requires vaccinated people to get a booster vaccine before they can leave the country.
“Ban on travel on UAE citizens unvaccinated with #Covid19 vaccine, starting Jan 10, 2022, with a requirement to obtain the booster dose for the fully vaccinated,” Twitted the (NCEMA).
Only unvaccinated citizens traveling for humanitarian reasons and those seeking medical treatment will be spared from the new requirement.
The harsh restriction comes in the wake of a substantial increase of COVID-19 cases in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world.
Global tourism was picking up, with some markets performing better than others, but the new omicron variant is testing governments’ preparedness once again.
Just yesterday, the UAE had to further tighten travel restrictions on UK visitors, as the European country prepares for a “tsunami of Omicron” cases.
Abu Dhabi will no longer allow quarantine-free UK travelers into the emirate while Dubai will reduce the validity of the mandatory negative PCR test from 72 to 48 hours prior to departure.
“Sadly we should expect such sudden changes in travel requirements and protocols for the next few months with countries frequently making unilateral changes to their entry requirements sometimes as part of a political response to some change elsewhere,” John Grant, partner at UK-based consultancy Midas Aviation, told Arabian Business.
When the pandemic first started, the UAE was able to control incidences thanks to its strict entry and exit restrictions.
Thus, it’s reasonable to expect the government to impose similar restrictions now that the pandemic is gathering pace once again.
On Monday, the UAE recorded 2,581 new Covid-19 cases in the preceding 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 772,189, according to the Ministry of Health and Prevention.
One virus-related death was also reported, taking the cumulative deaths to 2,170.
The government stated in a statement that it will continue expanding the scope of testing across the country to help with an early diagnosis of coronavirus cases and treatment.