Travellers from the UAE faced quarantine on arrival in the UK from Tuesday after the British government changed its list of countries with a travel corridor that avoided post-flight isolation at home.
International travel for people in the UK is restricted but those already in the UAE had been able to avoid going into quarantine when arriving back in Britain – until the most recent edit of the list.
As infections rise rapidly in the UK, London has tightened its international travel regime. The rules were changed last week to include a PCR test before travel into the United Kingdom.
The latest data indicates we need to immediately remove the UAE from the travel corridor list
The UK's Transport Ministry said that from Tuesday, people travelling from the UAE would need to be isolated for 10 days, unless they have an exemption like diplomatic status.
Tier four restrictions were imposed across England last week as the country grappled with surging Covid-19 positive test rates. The country has been badly hit by the pandemic with registered 3.12 million cases and more than 82,000 deaths.
The tightest coronavirus rules Tier 4 enforces the closures of schools, non-essential shops, restaurants and sports facilities. People have been advised to only leave home for essential reasons and to only meet one other person in an outdoor space under social distancing.
Britain's Foreign Office also updated its travel advice. Passengers who are travelling from from the UAE will also have to present a negative Covid-19 test result taken up to three days before departing for Britain “to help protect against new strains of coronavirus circulating internationally", the ministry said.
_____________________
UK begins vaccine drive - in pictures
_____________________
“The government has made it consistently clear that it will take decisive action if necessary to contain the virus, including if the public health risk of people returning from a particular country without self-isolating becomes too high.”
UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: "Ignoring the rules costs lives. Inconsiderate and selfish behaviour puts others at risk and is unfair to those following the rules to beat the virus. Stay at home. Save lives.”
The infection rate rose in the UAE from about 1,000 a day in early January to more than 2,000 a day. But the Emirates last week become the world's second highest vaccinator, after Israel.
Many British travellers arrived in the UAE after the travel corridor opened weeks before Christmas. The rapidly spreading new coronavirus strain has been found to be 50-70 per cent more transmissible than previous dominant strains.
The list was last changed a week ago when a travel corridor with Israel was removed and travel was banned from countries bordering South Africa, which also has been the source of a separate highly infectious Covid-19 strain.
Those returning from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ajman, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah will be included in the quarantine.
The move came a day after Scotland introduced a similar restriction on people arriving from the UAE.
All passengers who have travelled to Scotland from Dubai since January 3 have also been asked to isolate.
There was also case of Covid-19 confirmed among Scotland's Celtic football club squad, two days after the team returned from a six-day training camp in Dubai last week.
More than 250,000 people in the UAE have been fully vaccinated against the virus, with the Pfizer-BioNTech inoculation joining the Sinopharm vaccine as the two shots used by health authorities.
That means about 2.5 per cent of the country's population has received both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine since the start of a major inoculation drive in mid-December, changing the calculus for the UK authorities.
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
More coverage from the Future Forum
War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
More on Quran memorisation:
500 People from Gaza enter France
115 Special programme for artists
25 Evacuation of injured and sick
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
THE BIO
Favourite book: ‘Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren
Favourite travel destination: Switzerland
Hobbies: Travelling and following motivational speeches and speakers
Favourite place in UAE: Dubai Museum
The specs: Rolls-Royce Cullinan
Price, base: Dh1 million (estimate)
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 563hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque: 850Nm @ 1,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 15L / 100km
SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%202-litre%20direct%20injection%20turbo%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%207-speed%20automatic%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20261hp%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20400Nm%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20From%20Dh134%2C999%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
SQUADS
Bangladesh (from): Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mahmudullah Riyad, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das, Taijul Islam, Mosaddek Hossain, Nayeem Hasan, Mehedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadat Hossain, Abu Jayed
Afghanistan (from): Rashid Khan (capt), Ihsanullah Janat, Javid Ahmadi, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, Ikram Alikhil, Mohammad Nabi, Qais Ahmad, Sayed Ahmad Shirzad, Yamin Ahmadzai, Zahir Khan Pakteen, Afsar Zazai, Shapoor Zadran
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
The years Ramadan fell in May
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Test series fixtures
(All matches start at 2pm UAE)
1st Test Lord's, London from Thursday to Monday
2nd Test Nottingham from July 14-18
3rd Test The Oval, London from July 27-31
4th Test Manchester from August 4-8
The years Ramadan fell in May
PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE
1 Man City 26 20 3 3 63 17 63
2 Liverpool 25 17 6 2 64 20 57
3 Chelsea 25 14 8 3 49 18 50
4 Man Utd 26 13 7 6 44 34 46
----------------------------------------
5 West Ham 26 12 6 8 45 34 42
----------------------------------------
6 Arsenal 23 13 3 7 36 26 42
7 Wolves 24 12 4 8 23 18 40
8 Tottenham 23 12 4 8 31 31 39
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
