DUBAI: Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, has removed an option for visitors to apply for COVID-19 vaccines from a dedicated mobile app, although a hotline run by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) last week said tourists were eligible.
SEHA, which operates the emirate’s health infrastructure, had said that visitors with visas issued by Abu Dhabi and passport holders eligible for tourist visas upon entry can book free vaccines, and its app had shown a “visitor” function.
Vaccinations had previously been restricted to UAE citizens and residency visa holders.
Abu Dhabi Media Office, which had not responded to a Reuters’ request for comment on tourists’ eligibility, issued a statement on Thursday saying vaccines are available to those with an expired residency visa or expired entry visa, “which does not include holders of valid tourist or visit visas.”
It has not responded to requests to clarify the issue.
Job losses and travel restrictions during the pandemic mean some people’s residency visas have expired or have been canceled when they were made redundant.
The UAE, which has run one of the world’s fastest vaccination campaigns, comprises seven emirates which have set some of their own COVID-19 and vaccine policies.
There is no indication that Dubai, the most populous emirate and a business and tourism hub, has opened vaccines up to visitors.
UAE Health authorities said this month nearly 85 percent of the eligible population had received at least one vaccine dose, but did not say how many had had two doses.
Coronavirus infections have risen in the past month in the UAE, which does not give a breakdown for each emirate. On Saturday, it recorded 2,282 new infections to take its total to 624,814 cases and 1,792 deaths.
Abu Dhabi still has restrictions on entry, including home quarantine and PCR testing at intervals after arrival. People driving from other emirates are tested to show they are not infected.
Abu Dhabi COVID-19 app removes vaccine option for visitors
https://arab.news/mahax
Abu Dhabi COVID-19 app removes vaccine option for visitors
- Vaccinations had previously been restricted to UAE citizens and residency visa holders
Iraq starts investigations into Daesh detainees moved from Syria
- Those detainees are among 7,000 Daesh suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters
- In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s judiciary announced on Monday it has begun its investigations into more than 1,300 Daesh group detainees who were transferred from Syria as part of a US operation.
“Investigation proceedings have started with 1,387 members of the Daesh terrorist organization who were recently transferred from the Syrian territory,” the judiciary’s media office said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for Daesh.
“Under the supervision of the head of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, several judges specializing in counterterrorism started the investigation.”
Those detainees are among 7,000 Daesh suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom the US military said it would transfer to Iraq after Syrian government forces recaptured Kurdish-held territory.
They include Syrians, Iraqis and Europeans, among other nationalities, according to several Iraqi security sources.
In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Backed by US-led forces, Iraq proclaimed the defeat of Daesh in the country in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately beat back the group in Syria two years later.
The SDF went on to jail thousands of suspected extremists and detain tens of thousands of their relatives in camps.
Last month, the United States said the purpose of its alliance with Kurdish forces in Syria had largely expired, as Damascus pressed an offensive to take back territory long held by the SDF.
In Iraq, where many prisons are packed with Daesh suspects, courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to people convicted of terrorism offenses, including many foreign fighters.
Iraq’s judiciary said its investigation procedures “will comply with national laws and international standards.”
