UAE bans travel from India due to worsening COVID situation from Sunday

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Dubai: The UAE has banned travel from India for 10 days from Sunday due to the worsening COVID-19 situation in the country.

The travel ban will come into effect from 11.59 pm on Saturday, April 24, and is subject to review after 10 days, the Gulf News reported.

Passengers who have transited through India in the last 14 days will also not be permitted to board from any other point to the UAE, the report said.

However, departure flights will continue to operate and the ban will not extend to UAE citizens, diplomatic passport holders and official delegations, it said.

Anil Punjabi, chairman, Eastern Region, Travel Agents’ Federation of India said travel agents in India received the notification from Emirates.

Effective April 24, 2021 and for the next 10 days, Emirates flights from India to the UAE will be suspended.

Furthermore, passengers who have transited through India in the last 14 days will not be accepted to travel from any other point to the UAE.

Affected customers should contact their travel agent or Emirates contact centre for rebooking options, the airline said in a travel advisory on its website.

“The travel and tourism sector in India have already been hit hard by the pandemic. Further flight suspensions are an additional blow,” Punjabi was quoted as saying in the report.

According to Khaleej Times, people are barred from booking flights from the UAE to Indian destinations after April 24 on the Emirates, Etihad, flydubai and Air Arabia websites.

The UAE is the latest country to impose a travel ban on passengers from India after it recorded the world’s highest number of 3,14,835 COVID-19 cases in one day on Thursday.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.India crossed the grim milestone of 1.50 crore on April 19.

The UK on Monday added India to its COVID-19 travel “red list”, which effectively bans all travel from the country and makes a 10-day hotel quarantine compulsory for UK residents arriving back to the country. Hong Kong banned flights from India for 14 days from Tuesday.

Pakistan on Monday decided to ban for two weeks travellers coming from India. France on Wednesday announced a ban on travel from India from Saturday.

Oman announced it will bar travel from India along with Pakistan and Bangladesh from April 24, the report said. The entry ban for passengers from India to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait continues, it said.

On Tuesday, the US advised its citizens to avoid travelling to India, even if they are fully vaccinated as there is a ‘very high level’ of COVID-19 in the country.