COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Denmark has temporarily suspended all flights in the United Arab Emirates for five days after suspicions that coronavirus tests that can be obtained before leaving Dubai are unreliable, authorities said on Friday.
The development, which is emerging amid a wave of infections in the United Arab Emirates, is a direct challenge to the mass testing regime, which has been the mainstay of the country’s coronavirus response and economic reopening. Dubai was one of the first destinations in the world to open to tourists, receiving visitors from anywhere with just a coronavirus test.
The Danish Minister of Transport, Benny Engelbrecht, said that the decision was taken to allow a thorough investigation of the problem and to ensure that the testing is carried out properly.
“We cannot ignore such a suspicion,” Engelbrecht said, adding that the ban went into effect on Thursday night.
The Danish authorities have faced a “concrete and serious citizen inquiry” into the way tests are conducted at entry and exit points in Dubai, he said, and “therefore we must be absolutely certain that there is no problems”.
Engelbrecht said at least “one citizen” had brought the South African version of the “back from Dubai” virus. He no longer identified that person. Dubai has seen an increase in the number of residents in South Africa, as the country’s economy has deteriorated in recent years.
The Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet said on Friday that there was a second test report of the allegedly negligent virus in Dubai and quoted Engelbrecht as saying that “the information seems accurate and valid”.
Since January 9, Denmark has demanded that all passengers arriving in the Scandinavian country have a negative coronavirus test or proof that they recently had 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 the Associated Press’ request for comments on the flight suspension and suspicions about testing the virus.
On January 8, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised any trip abroad, including business trips. On Tuesday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told local media that “there is a reason why we really ask everyone not to travel. It is very important that everyone listens. ”
“There is a risk of mutations (the virus) in Denmark,” she said. “It can undermine the control of our epidemic and thus infect others and worse.”
In recent days, several Danish celebrities, socialists and influencers – 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 on social media.
Lea Hvidt Kessler, the wife of the former world super-middleweight champion, wrote on Instagram that no one in their family who traveled to Dubai before Christmas was infected. According to the Danish press, there are currently 85 Danish citizens there and about 800 Danish permanent residents in Dubai.
On Friday, as the United Arab Emirates smashed the 11th consecutive daily record of infection with 3,552 new cases, the Dubai-run press office announced new strict limits for weddings, social events and private parties, starting on Wednesday, restricting all meetings to 10 immediate family members. Wedding parties at hotels and other locations were previously limited to 200.
Dubai has also announced the immediate cessation of all “entertainment activities” on boats and floating restaurants – a popular pastime in the city. Tourists and celebrities often display their vacations on social networks, posting photos of fierce champagne-soaked yacht parties that have spread across the tabloids in recent weeks. A day earlier, Dubai suspended all live bands and performances in the city’s nightclubs and bars after hospitals were forced to suspend non-emergency operations to cope with an influx of new patients with COVID-19.
Tourists have gathered in Dubai in recent weeks, despite the furious pandemic, which has escaped deadlocked back home. The brilliant city-state, with an economy based largely on tourism, aviation and retail, has promoted itself as an ideal pandemic vacation spot.. In addition to ubiquitous masks and hand sanitizer dispensers, a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy prevails in crowded bars, massive malls and luxury hotels.
The daily explosive infections, which have almost tripled since November, have failed to endanger normalcy, even though the more contagious variants of coronavirus have spread around the globe. The United Kingdom, which, like Denmark, sent a lot of reality shows and sports stars to Dubai, closed its travel corridor with the UAE earlier this month.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the United Arab Emirates has built its response to coronavirus on an “early detection strategy”, using Chinese-made coronavirus testing kits to launch one of the world’s best testing campaigns. -a time when other countries were struggling to obtain and administer PCR tests. As of Friday, the country of about 9 million had performed about 24.2 million tests for coronavirus.
The US State Department has previously expressed concern about Chinese test materials was not correct without providing evidence of the charge.
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Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre of Dubai, UAE, contributed to the report.