For the next 48 hours, flights from Kenya will not be allowed entry into Dubai. as per a directive from Dubai Civil Aviation Authority.
"All air transport services with inbound and transit passenger movements to the emirate of Dubai from any point in the Republic of Kenya are temporarily suspended for 48 hours effective from 20 December 2021 at 10.30hrs local time Dubai," reads an announcement on Emirates airline's website.
"Customers will not be accepted for travel on Emirates flights at Nairobi during this time." Outbound passenger flights from Dubai to Nairobi remain unaffected.
Travellers do not need to call immediately to rebook, said the announcement. "Customers can simply hold on to their Emirates ticket and when flights resume, get in touch with their travel agent or booking office to make new travel plans."
While a specific reason for this suspension wasn't given, the move follows the cancellation of flights from other numerous African countries as the new Covid-19 variant spreads through the continent.
On December 17, the UAE suspended entry of passengers from the Republic of Congo as per a directive from the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority and the General Civil Aviation Authority.
The Ministry of Health on Saturday confirmed the existence of 9 lineages of the new Omicron COVID-19 with twenty-seven sequences of thirty-four samples tested matched to the variant.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the samples were picked between November 23 and December 7, 2021.
“Twenty-seven sequences (77 per cent) were confirmed to belong to the newly identified Omicron variant of concern. Two individuals with the Omicron variant had recently traveled from South Africa and Ghana and the rest had no recent international travel history,” Kagwe said.
In his statement on Saturday, Kagwe said most of the new cases had no recent travel history suggesting ongoing community transmission of the Omicron strain which was first detected in South Africa.