UAE suspends flights from India as virus cases spiral
The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and the National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA) have announced the suspension of all inbound flights for national and international carriers coming from India.
The travel ban includes inbound transit passengers with exception of transit flights coming to the UAE and heading to India, the GCAA said in a statement on Thursday.
The GCAA indicated that it is required for those coming from India through other countries that the period of stay in those countries is not less than 14 days to be allowed to enter the country, as of 23:59 on Saturday, April 24, 2021, for 10 days that can be extended.
Cargo flights between the two countries will continue, as usual, the statement added.
The GCAA affirmed that nationals of the UAE and diplomatic missions between the two countries, official delegations, businessmen’s planes and golden residence holders are excluded from this decision, provided that they should take preventive measures that include a 10-day quarantine and a PCR test at the airport as well as another test on the fourth and eighth days of entering the country, and to reduce the period of PCR test from 72 hours to 48 hours, provided that the tests issued by accredited laboratories bearing the QR Code are accepted.
This comes in response to the proactive precautionary and preventive health measures issued by all concerned authorities in the country to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the statement added.
The authority called on all travellers affected by the decision to follow up and communicate with the airlines to amend and schedule their flights and to ensure their safe return to their final destinations without any delay or other obligations.
India announced on Thursday that nearly 315,000 new cases of coronavirus had been recorded during the past 24 hours, in the highest daily toll in the world.
New Delhi sent out warnings that patients could die if oxygen supplies in hospitals were not replenished.
The country’s long-underfunded healthcare system is being stretched to the limit by a devastating second wave of the pandemic blamed on a “double mutant” variant and “super-spreader” mass gatherings.
India’s Health ministry data on Thursday showed 314,835 new infections in the past 24 hours, the most of any country since the pandemic began, taking total cases to 15.9 million, the world’s second highest.
There were 2,074 fatalities, bringing the total death toll to almost 185,000.
The European Commission is looking to launch legal action against Astrazeneca for underdelivering COVID-19 vaccine doses to the EU, hobbling the bloc’s early rollout of jabs, diplomats said on Thursday.
The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) announced that it conducted 203,232 additional COVID-19 tests and detected 2,081 new coronavirus cases.
MOHAP also announced four deaths due to COVID-19 complications.
The Ministry also noted that an additional 1,842 individuals had fully recovered from COVID-19.
Britain found 55 more cases of the B.1.617 coronavirus variant first detected in India in latest weekly figures, Public Health England said on Thursday, with India set to be added on the travel red list from Friday morning.
The EU executive informed member state envoys of its plans on Wednesday, the diplomats told reporters, confirming information first published by the Politico website.
They said any lawsuit against Astrazeneca would begin in a Belgian court - the jurisdiction agreed under the commission’s contract with the British-swedish pharmaceutical company.
Germany is expecting to open up Covid-19 vaccinations to all adults in June at the latest, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Thursday.
Spahn told the Bundesrat upper house of parliament he expected Europe’s biggest economy to be able to “lit the prioritisation in June”, referring to current lists deciding who gets the jabs first. He added that the move may be possible even earlier.
Fake doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine were being sold in Mexico and Poland for as much as $2,500 a shot, the US drugmaker and an official confirmed.
10-day suspension will be effective from April 25; cargo flights will continue, says GCAA; India reports record nearly 315,000 new cases; EU looks to sue Astrazeneca over delivery shortfall; UAE sees 2,081 new cases, 4 deaths.