Dubai keeps doors open despite sharp rise in cases
Published: 12:01 PM,Jan 18,2021 | EDITED : 04:04 AM,Apr 28,2024
As much of the world tightens lockdowns to stem coronavirus, Dubai has flung its doors open, branding itself as a sunny, quarantine-free escape -- despite a sharp rise in cases.
While mask-wearing and social distancing are strictly enforced, life in the tourism-reliant emirate looks much like normal, with its restaurants, hotels, and mega-malls open for business.
Images of sports stars and television personalities enjoying life at beach clubs and cocktail bars have flooded social media -- sometimes to disapproval back home.
Emirates, which restored its network to about three-quarters of pre-pandemic levels, is again operating A380 super-jumbos - the world's largest commercial airliner -- ferrying in visitors from Britain and Russia.
Russian tourist, Dmitriy Melnikov, said he came to Dubai because his choices were otherwise limited, with many destinations in partial or full lockdown.
'I am not scared,' the 30-year-old told AFP. 'If you look at people here, everyone has a mask, and I think it's cool.'
But the downside to becoming one of the world's most open destinations has been a sharp rise in coronavirus cases.
Daily detected cases hover in the mid-3,000s across the United Arab Emirates, which has a population of under 10 million, with 745 deaths from Covid-19 since the pandemic began.
'There are significant risks in Dubai remaining so open,' said Scott Livermore, chief economist at Oxford Economics Middle East.
'A renewed outbreak of Covid-19 would set the recovery back quite some way.'
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