UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has issued a directive to suspend all flights to and from Iran, with the exception of Tehran, until further notice amid fears of rising number of infected cases of COVID-19.
This would include the 9 daily flights between Dubai and destinations in Iran, excluding Tehran.
Passengers from Tehran will undergo thermal screening by Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and its Airport Medical Centre team at the airport.
Customers were urged by GCAA to contact the airlines directly for re-booking if their travel was affected by the suspension.
Earlier this week the Bahrain Civil Aviation Authority (BCAA) had suspended all 30 daily flights from Dubai and Sharjah airports for 48 hours over coronavirus fears while Bahrain’s health authorities took necessary measures against COVID-19 as Bahrain, Oman and Iraq reported their first cases of the coronavirus.
Gulf countries moved to stop an outbreak in Iran from spreading even as three more nationals in Kuwait have been infected with the coronavirus, all of them with travel history to Iran. This brings the total number of cases in Kuwait to eight.
The UAE has already announced 13 cases of the coronavirus and has banned its citizens from travelling to Iran and Thailand where new outbreaks have been reported
UAE's Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHaP) also issued a fresh set of guidelines, whereby passengers showing symptoms from China as well as from Hong Kong, South Korea, Iran, Japan, Singapore, and Italy will be tested for COVID-19. Earlier, only patients with a travel history to China were tested for COVID-19.