Gov't halts tourist visas for South Asian travelers
The announcement was made on Tuesday evening
Tourists arriving in the Maldives from South Asian countries will not be permitted to stay or visit residential islands | Velana Airport
Maldives is to halt issuing on-arrival visas for travelers from South Asia.
This was revealed by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in a series of Tweets posted on Tuesday evening.
Making the reveal to extend the curfew hours implemented across the Maldives from 4pm to 4am starting Wednesday, HPA noted that tourist visas will also be temporarily halted for travelers from South Asian countries, from May 13 onwards.
This measure comes amid a worsening Covid-19 situation across the entire country and is followed by a number of other measures including halting congregational prayers at mosques as well as disallowing food outlets such as restaurants and cafés to offer dine-in services. The recent announcement reveals that restaurants and cafés will only be allowed to remain open for deliveries and takeaways. Deliveries are to be allowed until 12am and businesses that don't comply with the guidelines set forth against Covid-19 will be closed down for 24 hours.
These restrictions will be in effect from May 12 - 18.
Recently, a new strain of Covid-19 discovered in neighboring India was detected in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as well, in the face of which relevant authorities in the countries to enforce stricter measures. Covid-19 cases in these countries, as well as Pakistan, continue to surge.
Maldivian health authorities have also expressed concern over the mounting caseload in the island nation, with Dr. Mohamed Ali recently having revealed that this could be a new and more infective variant.
Earlier HPA restricted tourists arriving from India from making bookings at guesthouses and mandated them to undergo a quarantine period, due to the situation in the neighboring country.
