Oman will reopen its borders on Tuesday after closing them for a week to halt the spread of a new strain of Covid-19.
The sultanate banned all travel in and out of the country by land, air and sea on December 22.
It took the measure to “protect community members from the severity of the infection and to contain its spreading,” its supreme committee for coronavirus response said last week.
Oman said it suspected that four cases of coronavirus detected last week could be of the new strain.
Its border will reopen at 12midnight and all arrivals must quarantine for a week. Each traveller must have a negative PCR test before flying, be tested on arrival, download and register on Oman’s Covid-19 tracking app Tarassud+.
They must also wear a tracking bracelet if asked to do so.
The government advised citizens and residents to avoid travelling abroad except in cases of “extreme necessity”.
To keep food and other supplies entering, cargo ships and lorries were exempted from the ban.
On Sunday, Oman began immunising residents and citizens against the virus.
Health Minister Ahmed Al Saeedi received one of the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. He and all other recipients will take a second dose after 21 days.
The first delivery of the vaccine contained 15,600 doses, and 28,000 are expected to arrive in January, Mr Al Saeedi said.
The first phase of vaccination is intended to reach 20 per cent of the population. Frontline workers, the elderly and those with chronic conditions will be vaccinated first.
Oman approved the vaccine on December 18. The sultanate has recorded more than 128,600 cases of coronavirus including 1,497 deaths.
Ten10 Cricket League
Venue and schedule Sharjah Cricket Stadium, December 14 to 17
Teams
Maratha Arabians Leading player: Virender Sehwag; Top picks: Mohammed Amir, Imad Wasim; UAE players: Shaiman Anwar, Zahoor Khan
Bengal Lions Leading player: Sarfraz Ahmed; Top picks: Sunil Narine, Mustafizur Rahman; UAE players: Mohammed Naveed, Rameez Shahzad
Kerala Kings Leading player: Eoin Morgan; Top picks: Kieron Pollard, Sohail Tanvir; UAE players: Rohan Mustafa, Imran Haider
Pakhtoons Leading player: Shahid Afridi; Top picks: Fakhar Zaman, Tamim Iqbal; UAE players: Amjad Javed, Saqlain Haider
Punjabi Legends Leading player: Shoaib Malik; Top picks: Hasan Ali, Chris Jordan; UAE players: Ghulam Shabber, Shareef Asadullah
Team Sri Lanka Cricket Will be made up of Colombo players who won island’s domestic limited-overs competition
RECORD%20BREAKER
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
