Coronavirus News: UAE’s Pandemic Party Haven Facts Dubai

Photographer: Karim Sahib / AFP / Getty Images

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Masks as soon as you enter. Bars packed and pulse like in 2019. Social media stars wave bottles of champagne. DJs spin party tunes through a brunch of more than one hour.

Since becoming one of the world’s first destinations opened to tourism, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, has promoted itself as the ideal pandemic vacation spot. Analysts say it can not afford otherwise, because the virus shakes the foundations of the city-state economy.

With its large shopping malls, frenetic construction and legions of foreign workers, Dubai was built on the promise of globalization, which came largely from the aviation, hospitality and retail sectors – all hit hard by the virus.

Now reality is catching up with the big-dream emirate. With the peak tourist season in full swing, coronavirus infections are rising to unprecedented heights. The daily number of cases has almost tripled in the past month, forcing Britain to close its journey with Dubai last week. But amid a growing economic crisis, the city will not close.

“The economy in Dubai is a house of cards,” said Matthew Page, a foreign scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The competitive advantage of it is to be a place where rules do not apply.”

While most countries have banned tourists from the UK for fear of the rapidly spreading virus variant found there, Dubai, home to around 240,000 British expats, has kept its doors open for the holidays. Emirates flies five daily flights to London Heathrow Airport.

Within days, the new virus strain arrived in the emirates, but it prevented reality TV and football stars from fleeing the British closure and winter weather to Dubai’s pubs and beaches – without taking a coronavirus test before boarding. Scenes of pre-pandemic sociability were splashed across the British tabloids. In the face of the setback, Instagram influencers spotted at yacht parties were able to quickly declare their trip ‘essential’.

Dubai was happy about the influx. According to data provider STR, occupancy rates rose to 71% in December. The London-Dubai route was the busiest in the world for the first week in January, said OAG, an aviation data analysis firm.

“People have had enough of this pandemic,” said Iris Sabellano of Dubai’s Al Arabi travel agency, adding that many of her clients were forced to quarantine after testing positive for the virus on arrival or before departure. Travelers coming from a select list of countries do not have to take tests before their travels, but all must be at the airport in Dubai.

“With the vaccination of vaccines, they feel that this is not the end of the world, they are not going to die,” she said.

For those dying of COVID-19, the long-haul airline Emirates is offering $ 1,800 to cover funeral expenses.

As the outbreak worsens, the rush seems to slow down. Israeli tourists, who come in the tens of thousands after a normalization agreement between the countries, have disappeared due to new quarantine rules. A decision to suspend visa waivers for Israelis to the UAE until July came into effect on Monday. Britain’s move to draw up a ten – day quarantine for those returning from Dubai threatens to block the remnants of the tourism sector.

“Britons are such an important part of tourists and investors in Dubai,” said David Tarsh, spokesman for ForwardKeys, a travel data analytics firm. “The pipeline cut … is a total disaster for the city.”

British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted that the government’s decision was driven by the latest UAE virus data. Apart from daily infections, however, the data are few. The UAE does not make public information about disease groups or hospitalizations.

Amid an aggressive test campaign, the country reported more than 256,000 cases and 751 deaths.

On Tuesday, dozens of cars drove into a desert coronavirus clinic on the outskirts of Dubai in the desert, awaiting tests. At the American hospital in Dubai, where a temporary tent is doing virus tests in a parking lot, a guard said the waiting times extend over two hours. At least 80 people lined up when the call for afternoon prayers resounded.

Hours after The Associated Press published this story, the government-run Dubai Media Office of the sheikh issued a statement saying the emirate ‘still maintains the highest level of protection against the pandemic and compliance with preventive measures’.

Analysts speculate that the unique demographics of the UAE – 90% of expatriates, who are mostly healthy young workers – have prevented well-staffed hospitals from being overwhelmed and keeping mortality rates low at 0.3%.

But that did not convince Abu Dhabi, Dubai’s more conservative neighbor and the country’s capital. Without explanation, Abu Dhabi closed its border with the freewheel Dubai, despite promises to reopen by Christmas. Anyone crossing to Abu Dhabi should undergo a negative coronavirus test.

Relations between busy Dubai and the oil-rich Abu Dhabi could become strained. During the 2009 financial crisis, Abu Dhabi had to rescue Dubai with a $ 20 billion bailout. This time, it is unclear whether Dubai can count on another cash import, given the collapse of global oil prices.