UK adds three more Gulf countries to its COVID ‘red list’

The United Kingdom on Monday announced that travellers from Oman, Qatar, and Somalia will no longer be able to enter the country from Friday as they have been added to the country’s COVID-19 ‘red list’.

The UK updated its ‘red list’ after taking into account the global developments with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new measures will take effect from 4 a.m. on Friday. The new additions to the list mean that four Arab states are now on Britain’s red list: Oman, Qatar, Somalia and the UAE.

People with British or Irish passports or those residences rights in the country must quarantine themselves in a government-approved hotel for ten days on arrival.

Ethiopia was also added to the red list on Monday, while Portugal and Mauritius were removed.

The UK government said in a press statement, “With over 24 million vaccinations delivered in the UK so far, the move will help to reduce the risk of new variants such as those first identified in South Africa and Brazil entering England,” as reported by Arab News.