UAE imposes new coronavirus restrictions as cases rise

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and surrounding countries are putting in place new coronavirus restrictions as cases rise in the region. 

The UAE is seeing nearly 4,000 new cases of the virus a day, three times more than the number of cases they saw in November.

Dubai has been open to international travelers throughout the pandemic, unlike many places that had restrictions on international travel and tourist spots closed down. 

“We started off in July with 40,000 tourists. We ended in December with 560,000. 560,000 may seem a large number but when we’re used to welcoming over 1.5 million visitors in December every year, that is only a third of the usual numbers,” Dubai’s director general of tourism and commerce marketing, Helal Saeed Al Marri, told CNN.

Helal Saeed Al Marri, Director General of the Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing to @CNN: #Dubai has a clear plan to deal with the Covid-19. pic.twitter.com/SagqlRJYyq

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) February 3, 2021

The UAE is now adding some restrictions such as closing all you can eat and drink weekends at hotels, bars and nightclubs, and limiting the amount of people allowed in areas like malls, The Washington Post reported. Nonessential surgeries are also being postponed. 

Al Marri believes the cases have gone up due to a lack of compliance with the guidelines put in place to combat the pandemic and not due to the tourism in the city. 

“Data shows that it’s linked directly to compliance. When we had a 98 to 99 percent compliance we didn’t see any spike. When that dropped by 4 to 5 percentage points we saw numbers go up. It tells us what we are doing is right,” he said. 

Saudi Arabia announced that it will be suspending weddings and corporate meetings for a month along with indoor dining, gyms and malls for the next 10 days. Kuwait has banned international travelers for the next two weeks, closed gyms and mandated other businesses to close by 8 p.m.