Covid-19: UAE-UK travellers must self-isolate for 10 days

Travellers need to present negative coronavirus test taken three days before departure

Travellers to the United Kingdom from the United Arab Emirates will now have to self-isolate for 10 day as the country has been taken off the travel corridors list, the UK Department of Transport said on Monday.

The decision has been implemented from 4am on Tuesday.

“The decision has been made following a significant acceleration in the number of imported cases, along with the number of reported new cases over the past seven days, which have risen in the UAE by 52%.”

Under existing rules, passengers arriving from all international destinations are required to present a negative Covid-19 test result taken up to three days before departing for England or Scotland.

The move came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain was in “a race against time” to roll out Covid-19 vaccines as deaths hit record highs and hospitals ran out of oxygen, and his top medical adviser said the pandemic’s worst weeks were imminent.

On Thursday, Britain said it would extend a ban on travellers entering England from South Africa to other southern African countries to prevent the spread of a variant of the coronavirus identified in South Africa.