CLAIM: Qatar is barring persons not inoculated with Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines from entering the country.
Source: Various social media posts
VERDICT: FALSE. While Qatar is exempting, from quarantine, persons inoculated with four approved vaccines, but it is not refusing entry to those who are not vaccinated.
A message circulating on Twitter claims that only persons immunised against COVID-19 using vaccines approved by Qatar are allowed to enter the Gulf state.
The claim is based on a notice purportedly issued by Qatar Airways.
“Please be informed, with immediate effect, passengers travelling to Qatar vaccinated abroad should be with one of the COVID-19 vaccines recognised by the MOPH (Ministry of Public Health) as follows: Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson,” reads part of the image.
It adds that passengers meeting this requirement would be exempt from Qatar’s mandatory quarantine regulations, which currently require persons travelling into the country to stay at home or in a hotel for a week.
The notice does not appear on any official feed of the airline.
What do Qatar’s regulations say?
The Gulf state’s COVID-19 travel regulations, updated on 24 January 2021, currently limit entry into Qatar to citizens and permanent resident permit holders. Holders of valid visas may also enter, subject to re-entry approval.
Citizens of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait – are also allowed entry into fellow GCC state Qatar.
Citizens and other returning residents are required to stay in quarantine – either at home or in a hotel depending on the circumstances – for a week after re-entering Qatar. They are also required to take a COVID-19 test on the sixth day of quarantine.
Quarantine exemption for the vaccinated
Qatar has recently updated its quarantine rules, which now exempt persons vaccinated abroad from hotel quarantine.
According to current regulations, citizens and returning residents travelling from countries deemed to have high COVID-19 risk, are required to quarantine for a week in approved hotels. This rule has now been changed for those travelling from high risk countries if they have been vaccinated using approved vaccines.
“Persons who received COVID-19 vaccine outside Qatar are exempted from the hotel quarantine if they meet the following criteria: the vaccine received must be approved by the Ministry of Public Health in Qatar, to include Pf izer/BioNTech vaccine, Moderna vaccine, AstraZeneca vaccine and Johnson & Johnson vaccine,” the regulations say.
“A person must have completed the specified doses, such as a single dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and two doses of the other vaccines indicated above. A period of 14 days must have passed from the date of receiving the single dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the same period following the second dose of the other vaccines indicated above.”
Rule change doesn’t require vaccination for entry, contrary to claim
While the updated regulations benefit persons returning to Qatar after receiving the approved vaccines abroad, the country is not barring people returning to the country without having been vaccinated.
Qatar still has not opened up its borders and ports to people who are not citizens or permit holders. But citizens and returning residents who are not vaccinated and who travelled to countries not on Qatar’s “green list”, will be required to quarantine for seven days at approved hotels at their own expense.
CONCLUSION
Qatar’s policy to exempt persons inoculated using approved vaccines from quarantine has been read to mean travellers from countries such as Zimbabwe, which is currently using vaccines from China and India, would be barred from entering the Gulf state. This is not true.
Qatar currently restricts entry by persons other than its citizens, legal residents and citizens from fellow Gulf states.
Qatar has not pronounced its travel policy for foreign travellers in the even that it re-opens fully for international travel, even though there have been calls for a vaccination passport policy in the country.
On 6 April, the state-owned Qatar AIrways operated a fully vaccinated flight, with all crew and passengers having been vaccinated against COVID-19, as the airline did a test run of what the future of aviation could look like. Qatar Airways says it does not have any plans for mandatory vaccination of passengers at the present moment.
Speaking on 6 April, Qatar Airways’ chief executive Akbar Al Baker predicted that vaccination passports might become mandatory for the aviation industry in the future.
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