Dubai and Abu Dhabi requiring covonavirus test certificates for entry, transfer and exit

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• Greg says:

  28 Jul28 July 10:59

  Seems like common sense to me. If every country in the world did the same I am guessing it would help in solving th eproblems this virus is causin. Wouldn’t it ?

• Lady London says:

  28 Jul28 July 11:02

  That’s bye- bye Qatar for a while then.

  • Rhys says:

    28 Jul28 July 11:07

    You realise Dubai and Abu Dhabi are not in Qatar, right?….

    • Colin says:

      28 Jul28 July 11:15

      😂

      • Peter K says:

        28 Jul28 July 13:09

        Ooops 😁

  • mark says:

    28 Jul28 July 13:19

    I think you mean “hello Qatar” – they will exploit this to the max given their relationship (or lack thereof) with UAE of recent years!

• Rob says:

  28 Jul28 July 11:04

  The UK didn’t have a list on the Emirates website yesterday, although it was there for selected other countries.

• TomD says:

  28 Jul28 July 14:18

  I’m out in Dubai at the moment. Got the announcement requiring a test to fly yesterday from Emirates. My understanding from the text I received was that a negative Covid-19 test is a requirement to board an Emirates flight.
  Emirates has just announced free Covid-19 global insurance for all passengers – up to EUR 150,000, for 31 days from the date of the flight. My assumption is that the two are probably linked. They need to reduce the risk to offer the cover. The trade off is that when I arrived I got a free test and had to quarantine until a negative result was given. From Saturday you will have to pay for a test in the UK but it seems you won’t get the free test on arrival but also won’t be restricted to the hotel room until given the all clear

• Tim says:

  28 Jul28 July 14:57

  As an expat living in Dubai hoping to travel to see family in UK in August here’s what I’ve got from EK today.
  1) An SMS result from NHS will be accepted in London (and I assume other UK airports). Now, quite how you go about getting an NHS test without declaring you have symptoms (if you’re not a key worker) is another question.
  2) Therefore, ignore screening.purehealth.ae – any private test will do. I will also now look at the viability of purchased home test kits; Lloyds pharmacy etc
  3) SMS/App result will be accepted at DXB i.e. printed certificate is not required.

  What I can also say is that a test out here is 370dhs (£78) whereas the cheapest private test clinic I’ve found near where I will be (Cardiff) is double that at £145.

  The global insurance by EK does not cover testing away from Dubai – only expenses if you travel overseas from Dubai and contract Covid-19.

  My gut tells me that the test to leave Dubai, which specifically mentions “to UK and Europe”, is basically another ‘expat tax’. It makes no sense to force someone to have a test to travel to a country that doesn’t require a test for entry. However, they know that after lockdown most travellers will be expats (I don’t get why a tourist would choose to come here in July or August) heading back to Europe to see family and escape the heat so make hay whilst the sun shines. Once it gets to prime tourist season from late Sept/early Oct I imagine that test will put a lot of tourists off coming and will be removed.

  So to sum up, I’m annoyed that we have to have a pointless test just to leave here. And it’s an expensive pain in the ass that you (seemingly) can’t get an NHS test without declaring symptoms. For me travelling alone after 5 months+ away from my family I’ll take this £200ish hit this time. But it will certainly start to add up for couples or families with teenage children considering travel and will rightly put many off.

  • Tim says:

    28 Jul28 July 17:51

    For clarity, I don’t object to having to pay for a test. It is just a pain not being able to use, from what friends and family a tell me, are very quiet, under utilised NHS drive through facilities.
    If I could drive up to one, pay a nominal fee (£50???) for a symptom-free test, that would make things an awful lot easier than trying to track down a private test centre and then play roulette trying to get one of their time slots 96 hours before departure!!

  • Chris says:

    28 Jul28 July 21:15

    Hi Tim,

    One thing I would point out here is that the chat messages i’ve had with Pure Health seem adamant that it’s the check in agent who checks the test result, otherwise you’re denied boarding at origin (in my case LHR). My worry is their interpretation that an SMS doesn’t suffice.

    The window for testing is also more complicated than it first appears. My original flight next Wednesday 5th LHR-DXB is not too much of an issue, but it would need the lab test taken on Monday 3rd. The Feltham lab – as listed on the UAE approved sites for the UK – says they need upto 48 hours to produce the result so the appointment time must exceed 48 hours from check in closing time in order to guarantee getting the result in time, whilst simultaneously being within 96 hours of landing in the UAE (72 hours according to Etihad).

    I have no idea what that means if your flight is due to depart on a Tuesday. Meeting both criteria presumably becomes impossible if the lab can not do tests on a weekend. I am a solo traveller, going mainly for work, and i’m flexible but I feel really sorry for families that don’t have the same flexibility, and live miles away from an accredited laboratory – it’s a tough ask on them.

    Sorry I’ve copied the above from a Flyertalk post I made on the EK forum but hope that my roundabout discussions with Pure Health, the Feltham lab etc are at least useful to some people on here.

    • Polly says:

      29 Jul29 July 06:02

      V useful, thanks, esp if not open on weekends…what a nightmare

• Sukes says:

  28 Jul28 July 16:05

  Has anyone experience of invoking with Etihad Holidays clause 6.14 of their T&Cs (published Jan 2020) due to Covid? “You have the right to cancel your confirmed holiday before departure without paying a cancellation fee in the event of “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances….Your right to cancel in these circumstances will only apply where the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against travel to your destination or its immediate vicinity. For the purposes of this clause, “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances” means warfare, acts of terrorism, significant risks to human health such as the outbreak of serious disease at the travel destination or natural disasters….Please note that clause 6.14 only applies to customers who are resident in the United Kingdom/European Union.”

• kumar says:

  28 Jul28 July 16:51

  DO kids under 12 need the test?

  • Rob says:

    28 Jul28 July 16:57

    Seems not.

• Tim says:

  28 Jul28 July 17:46

  I’m pretty sure the “purehealth” list is a ‘financially beneficial arrangement’ for both purehealth who are based here and the labs they have linked up with overseas.
  As far as “UAE Government” lists go I would be trusting what EK have on their website – see my post further down.
  Having said that – if one of those places is local and convenient to you, the 542dhs fee is cheaper than any private lab I’ve found within reasonable proximity to where I need to get tested.

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