UAE bans citizens from traveling to Vietnam over Covid variant fears

09:16 02/07/2021 - Living positive

The UAE has banned its citizens from traveling to 14 countries and territories including Vietnam due to fears they might bring back new Covid variants.

Passengers walk at Dubai International Airport, Dubai, UAE, April, 2020. Photo by Reuters/Ahmed Jadallah.

Other countries in the list are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Namibia, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, South Africa, and Nigeria.

Only diplomats, people requiring emergency medical treatment, official delegations, and business and technical delegates already authorized are exempt from the ban, which was announced on Thursday.

The UAE last month extended the ban on inbound flights from Vietnam and 13 other countries until at least July 21.

The highly transmissible Delta variant, first identified in India, has become the most prevalent in many countries, including Vietnam where most new cases are linked to it.

There is also continued concern over the latest mutations of this variant. A mutation considered to be 50 percent more transmissible than other strains, dubbed Delta-plus, is now present in 12 countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Japan, Russia, and China.

The UAE has so far had over 630,000 infections and 1,819 deaths.

Several other countries have also been banning and imposing stricter quarantine measures for travelers from Vietnam. Two months into its fourth wave, the most challenging so far, the country has recorded 14,335 cases.

Nguyen Quy

02/07/2021