The United Arab Emirates on Thursday August 5, is expected to lift the ban on transit flights from Nigeria to the country.
This was made known by the National Emergency and Crisis Management Authority, (NCEMA ) on Tuesday, August 3.
NCEMA is quoted from its Twitter source to have said that passengers travelling from countries where flights had been banned would be able to transit through its airports starting from August 5th, 2021 as long as they present a negative PCR coronavirus test taken 72 hours prior to departure.
It is again stated by the Authority that, the test must be taken in approved laboratories and must carry a QR code. Countries are also expected to allocate special lounges at the airport for transit passengers while all precautionary and preventive measures are duly considered.
Emirates, Dubai state air carrier, is quoted to have welcomed the decision made by the UAE government to allow travel to resume from the affected countries; but there has not being comments from other UAE airlines concerning this new development according to sources.
NCEMA confirmed that, ban on entry to UAE is lifted for those with valid residencies and for those who are certified by Emirati authorities as fully vaccinated but they will be expected to still present a negative PCR test report taken 48 hours prior to departure.
However, those working in the medical, educational or government sectors in the Gulf Arab states, as well as those studying or completing medical treatment in the UAE, are likely to be exempted from the vaccination requirement as stated in the Twitter report.
Other countries the ban has be lifted from are: Uganda, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
We will recall that flights between Nigeria and UAE has been suspended since March 17, 2021 over Covid 19 tests dispute.