UAE tells inbound travelers to self-quarantine for 14 days

The United Arab Emirates will also stop issuing all visas on arrival from March 19 to combat the spread of the coronavirus, the Gulf state’s embassy in the U.K. wrote on Twitter.

Attorney General Hamad Al Shamsi said that anyone traveling into the country must commit to a self-quarantine period of 14 days, the country’s state news agency reported. Violating imposed bans is punishable by law, he added.

The U.A.E. temporarily banned its citizens from traveling abroad from Wednesday until further notice, its Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried on state news agency WAM.

Foreign nationals from around 60 countries, including European Union member states, were previously able to get visas on arrival in the U.A.E, the Middle East’s main business and tourist hub, where expatriates make up around 85% of the population. Dubai airport is normally the world’s busiest in terms of international traffic. The country has 113 confirmed cases of the virus.

U.A.E. residents are not affected, the embassy wrote on Wednesday.

The U.K. Foreign Office mentioned the new U.A.E. rules on its travel advisory page and some foreign embassies in the U.A.E. shared the new measures on Twitter.