On Wednesday, Maldivian President Ibrahim Solih announced that the popular tourist destination will reopen borders to South Asian countries from July 15. The local media reported that the reopening is, however, subject to an assessment of the Covid-19 situation in each country.
In May, as a precautionary measure, the Maldives immigration had temporarily suspended entry for South Asian tourists to the country. In a public statement on Tuesday, however, Solih said that the primary objective of his government is to restart the country's economy amid the extended lockdown restrictions necessitated by the third wave of the pandemic that peaked in May, reports Xinhua news agency. Solih said that the ongoing curfew hours would be reduced to 8 pm to 4 am starting from Thursday.
All categories of businesses, including restaurants, gyms and salons, will be permitted to resume operations during non-curfew hours, he said. According to recent reports, people who have contracted and recovered from Covid-19 will be able to freely travel between islands and won’t need to go through mandatory quarantine.
With the Maldives opening its borders for South Asians, all the Indians who wanted to travel in 2021 can take a sigh of relief. The island country could be added to the list of other countries that are open to tourists - Egypt, UAE, US, Brazil Russia and South Africa, among others. Even though in most countries it is still mandatory to produce a negative Covid-19 test result as well as fulfil quarantine requirements, few countries different rules for tourists from different countries.
(With Inputs from IANS)