UAE ban on entry from India unchanged: Federal aviation notice

Dubai, a business and tourism hub, is the most populous of the UAE's seven emirates. Throughout the pandemic the UAE's seven emirates have set some of their own COVID-19 policies.

Reuters

June 27, 2021 / 02:31 PM IST

Representational image

A United Arab Emirates ban on entry from India, South Africa and Nigeria remains in place, the federal aviation authority said on Sunday, after Dubai had announced it would ease entry restrictions from those countries.

Dubai, a business and tourism hub, is the most populous of the UAE's seven emirates. Throughout the pandemic the UAE's seven emirates have set some of their own COVID-19 policies.

In a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) on Sunday, the UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) referenced a June 21 GCAA document stating entry from 13 countries, including Pakistan, was banned due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Dubai had said on June 19 that an entry ban on those who in the past 14 days had visited India, Nigeria and South Africa would ease from June 23.

Under the changes, entry would be permitted to UAE residents in India who were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, anyone in South Africa who was fully vaccinated and those in Nigeria who had tested negative for coronavirus in the past 48 hours.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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