Oman bars entry to people arriving from 10 countries to control coronavirus spread

The sultanate began its first vaccination campaign on December, vaccinating 30,000 people so far

A view of the area of Haramil in the Omani capital Muscat on September 18, 2020. AFP

Oman will not allow people arriving from 10 countries to enter the country for 15 days to curb the spread of the coronavirus, in particular certain mutated strains, the Gulf state's coronavirus committee said on Tuesday.

The countries on the list are: Sudan, Lebanon, South Africa, Brazil, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia. The decision is effective from Thursday.

The committee urged Omani citizens and residents to avoid travelling except for urgent reasons.

Oman introduced a seven-day hotel quarantine requirement for all arrivals from February 15 to control the spread of infection.

The second phase of vaccinations kicked off this month after receiving 100,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, made under licence by the Serum Institute of India.

The sultanate began its first vaccination campaign using Pfizer-BioNTech inoculations on December 7, reaching 30,000 people.