Maldives resorts to reopen for tourists from South Asia on Thursday, transit allowed in designated facilities

Travelers from South Asia will be allowed entry into Maldives from Thursday, under specific guidelines.

Authorities halted issuing visas to travelers from South Asia on May 11 following a surge in cases which was confirmed as the fourth coronavirus wave. This was about a month after the Delta variant was first discovered in neighboring India, in April.

While President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih first announced July 15th as the date to reopen borders for travelers from South Asia, at a press conference held on June 30, Spokesperson at the President’s Office Mohamed Mabrook revealed further details on this last week.

Mabrook said that travelers from South Asia will be allowed into the Maldives from July 15, but only if they are traveling to resorts. Further, guesthouses are to be reopened to them on the 30th.

A statement released by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) on Tuesday highlighted this as well, adding that travelers from South Asia will not be allowed in residential islands until the agency says so.

However, HPA said that these travelers will be allowed to transit in capital Male’ City under guidelines to be set by the Ministry of Tourism. They are to only stay at designated transit guesthouses in the congested city.

While tourists from South Asia are to be allowed to make guesthouse bookings from July 30, HPA said that a separate guideline will be issued prior to that.

Authorities back in June confirmed new variants of coronavirus in Maldives including the Delta variant.

The pause on visas for travelers from South Asia has impacted tourist arrivals numbers in the past few months. While the first four months saw high number of arrivals with it surpassing 100,000 in March, numbers in May and June were relatively low.

Maldives saw an alarming spike in Covid-19 cases towards the end of April. With more than 1,000 new cases recorded daily, number of fatalities increased as well. May saw the highest number of Covid-19 fatalities in a single month, 88 deaths, while 111 were confirmed between April 28 and June 5.

This led to the strengthening of coronavirus safety measures across the country especially the epicenter capital Male’ City in mid-May. While reported daily cases and hospitalizations have been decreasing since, recoveries continue to increase.

With these improvements, Covid-19 restrictions have been eased thrice since they were imposed in May.

Maldives reopened its border on 15th July 2020, after nearly four months of closure last year following the confirmation of the first Covid-19 cases in the island nation.