COVID-19: UAE lifts travel ban on Nigeria, passengers to undergo test at Dubai Airport

By SHOLA ADEKOLA, Lagos

The United Arab Emirates has lifted its travel ban on Nigeria, India and South Africa.

 According to a message from the Dubai Media Office, passengers from Nigeria are expected to have received a negative result for a PCR test taken within 48 hours before departure.

Passengers are also expected to present a negative PCR test certificate with an OR code from laboratories approved by the Nigerian government, while also undergoing same test upon arrival at the Dubai airport.

Emirates Airline had on February 1st, 2021 directed that Nigerian travellers at the Lagos and Abuja airports must conduct rapid COVID-19 tests before departure.

Paying the UAE airline in its own coin, the Nigerian government retaliated by also slamming a ban on Emirates flights in Nigeria.

The ban was however lifted after the Middle East airline agreed to stop the rapid antigen tests.

The Federal Government again on March 15 reintroduced the ban, saying the airline rescinded on the agreement.

On March 25, 2021, the UAE embassy in Abuja announced new COVID-19 travel protocols for Nigeria as measures to curtail the spread of coronavirus in the country.

It declared that passengers who have been in or transited through South Africa or Nigeria in the last 14 days before travelling to Dubai were barred from entering Dubai.(Nigerian Tribune)