COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Denmark has temporarily suspended all flights from the UAE for five days after suspecting coronavirus tests that can be obtained before leaving Dubai are unreliable, authorities announced on Friday.
The development, which is taking place amid a wave of infections in the UAE, poses a direct challenge to the massive testing regime that had been the mainstay of the coronavirus response and the country’s economic reopening. Dubai was one of the first destinations in the world to open to tourists, welcoming visitors from anywhere with just a coronavirus test.
Danish Transport Minister Benny Engelbrecht said the decision was made to allow the matter to be thoroughly investigated and to ensure that the tests are carried out correctly.
“We cannot ignore this suspicion,” said Engelbrecht, who added that the ban went into effect Thursday night.
The Danish authorities were faced with a “concrete and serious citizen investigation” into how the tests are being carried out at Dubai’s entry and exit points, he said, and “therefore we must be absolutely certain that there is no there are problems “.
Engelbrecht said at least “one citizen” carried the South African variant of the “back from Dubai” virus. He no longer identified this person. Dubai has seen an increase in the number of South African residents as the country’s economy deteriorated in recent years.
Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet said on Friday that there had been a second report of allegedly neglected virus testing in Dubai and quoted Engelbrecht as saying “the information seems accurate and valid”.
Since January 9, Denmark has required all passengers arriving in the Scandinavian country to take a negative coronavirus test or a test they have recently had for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, to limit the spread of the virus.
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request from the Associated Press to comment on the flight suspension and suspicions surrounding the virus testing.
On 8 January, the Danish Foreign Ministry discouraged all travel abroad, including business travel. On Tuesday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told local media that “there is a reason why we are really asking everyone not to travel. It’s very important that everyone listens. “
“There is a risk of bringing mutations (viruses) to Denmark,” he said. “It can undermine our control of the epidemic and therefore infect others and what’s worse.”
In recent days, several influential and influential Danish celebrities, such as former boxer Mikkel Kessler, former international footballer Nicklas Bendtner and table tennis ace Michael Maze, have traveled to Dubai and posted photos of themselves in the Social Networks.
Lea Hvidt Kessler, the wife of former world middleweight champion, wrote on Instagram that no one in her family who traveled to Dubai before Christmas was infected. According to the media in Denmark, there are currently 85 Danish citizens and about 800 permanent Danish residents in Dubai.
On Friday, as the UAE destroyed its eleventh consecutive daily infection record with 3,552 new cases, Dubai’s state media office announced strict limits for weddings, social events and private parties starting Wednesday. next, restricting all meetings to 10 immediate family members. Wedding parties in hotels and other places had previously been limited to 200.
Dubai also announced an immediate halt to all “entertainment activities” on boats and floating restaurants, a popular pastime in the city. Tourists and celebrities often flaunt their vacations on social media, posting photos of skinny, champagne-soaked yacht parties that have been splashed by tabloids in recent weeks. A day earlier, Dubai suspended all live bands and performances in nightclubs and bars in the city after hospitals were forced to stop non-urgent surgeries to cope with the influx of new patients with COVID-19.
Tourists have flocked to Dubai in recent weeks despite the pandemic raging and escaping the closures at home. The bright city-state, with an economy based largely on tourism, aviation and retail, has been touted as an ideal place for pandemic holidays.. Aside from ubiquitous masks and hand sanitizer dispensers, there is a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy in crowded bars, mass shopping malls and luxury hotels.
Daily shot infections, which nearly tripled since November, failed to return to normal, even as the most contagious variants of the coronavirus spread around the world. The UK, which like Denmark sent crowds of TV and reality stars to Dubai, closed its travel corridor with the UAE earlier this month.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the UAE has built its response to coronavirus on an “early detection strategy,” using Chinese-made coronavirus testing kits to embark on one of the world’s best testing campaigns. at a time when other countries were having trouble obtaining and administering PCR evidence. As of Friday, the country of about 9 million had performed about 24.2 million coronavirus tests.
The U.S. State Department previously raised its concern about Chinese test material it was not accurate, without providing evidence on the allegation.
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Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Dubai, UAE, contributed to this report.