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Emirates, Etihad put together for summer season amid delta Covid warnings

Emirates, Etihad prepare for summer amid delta Covid warnings

A Boeing 777 of the Emirates airline at Sydney International Airport on May 01, 2021 in Sydney, Australia.

James D. Morgan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Emirates airline is preparing for a summer travel surge over the next two weekends, despite growing concerns about the variant delta coronavirus, which is responsible for more than a third of infections in the United Arab Emirates.

Emirates expects more than 450,000 passengers on over 1,600 flights to, from and through Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport (DXB) in the coming days.

“The busiest days for the airline will be the next two weekends, July 2-3 and July 9-10, although high passenger traffic is expected today and will last until July 12,” Emirates said in a statement on Wednesday.

Almost 100,000 passengers will arrive in Dubai on Emirates flights over the same period to begin their summer vacation, the airline added. The seasonal surge in travel comes when temperatures heat up in the United Arab Emirates, where mercury can soar to 40 degrees Celsius and more in July.

Emirates, one of two national airlines in the United Arab Emirates, plans to increase its flight capacity to 90% of pre-pandemic levels by July. Dubai Airports also reopened Terminal 1 and Hall D on June 24th after being closed for 15 months due to the pandemic.

“All Emirates and DXB touchpoints are well prepared to cope with the increase in passenger numbers, with measures and protocols that increase the security of customers’ passage through Terminal 3,” said Emirates.

The more than half a million people who are expected to cross the UAE in the coming days correspond to almost the entire passenger volume of London’s Heathrow Airport in May of this year, according to Heathrow Airport.

A Boeing 787-9 “Dreamliner” operated by Etihad Airways displays Israeli and Emirati flags after arriving from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on the company’s first scheduled commercial flight from Abu Dhabi landed in April 02/06/2021.

JACK GUEZ | AFP | Getty Images

Etihad Airways from Abu Dhabi also extended their “Verified to Fly” program on Wednesday. The program enables travelers to validate Covid-19 travel documents prior to arriving at the airport to improve passenger turnaround time.

“We know these are challenging times for travelers and this has been an important initiative to make our guests’ journeys as easy as possible,” said John Wright, Etihad vice president for global airports and networking, in a statement.

Delta concerns

The expected increase in summer travel comes despite new warnings about the Delta variant of the virus, which has been shown to be more transmissible, causing more hospital stays and reducing vaccine effectiveness. The Delta variant, identified for the first time in India, accounts for 33.9% of cases in the UAE, according to the UAE Ministry of Health.

The British variant accounts for 11.3% of the cases, while the South African variant still has the highest infection rate at 39.2%. The United Arab Emirates reported 1,747 new cases of the virus on Tuesday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday issued a renewed level 4 “do not travel” warning for the UAE, the highest possible category, citing concerns about the virus. The United Arab Emirates are also still on the United Kingdom’s “red list”, where they have been since the end of January.

Britons living in the United Arab Emirates have expressed confusion and anger over the decision, particularly the Red List quarantine requirements.

Forty percent of the UAE’s roughly 10 million residents are now fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University. The high local vaccination rate, new flight routes and the easing of restrictions on vacation hotspots have given locals and residents the confidence and desire to travel again despite warnings about dangerous coronavirus variants.

Emirates has vowed to adhere to strict security measures for travelers. The airline was one of the first in the world to introduce the IATA Travel Pass, which will be extended to all routes in its network in the coming weeks. Emirates has also partnered with Al Hosn, the UAE covid tracing app, to support safe passenger movement.

“Emirates customers can travel knowing that the airline and its partners have spared no effort to make their airport trip as safe and smooth as possible,” said the airline.

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Western Warnings Tarnish Vaccines the World Badly Wants

Western Warnings Tarnish Vaccines the World Badly Needs

South Africa immediately copied the American break in Johnson & Johnson vaccinations and enraged doctors who still call for gunshots, especially in remote parts of the country. In February, health officials dropped the AstraZeneca vaccine there because of its limited effectiveness against a dangerous variant.

To date, only half of 1 percent of the population is vaccinated and only 10,000 shots are fired a day. At this rate, it could be weeks, if not longer, for a single rare case of blood clotting to occur, said Jeremy Nel, an infectious disease doctor in Johannesburg. He was dismayed by the decision to pause the shooting, given the risk of building confidence in vaccines in a country where two-fifths of the population say they don’t intend to vaccinate.

“The slower you go, the more that failure is measured in terms of death,” said Dr. Nel. “Even if you are late by a week, there is a non-trivial chance that will cost your life.”

The solution in many European countries – stop using apparently riskier vaccines in younger people who are less at risk of Covid-19 – would not be practical in Africa, where the average age in many countries is under 20.

Further restrictions would tighten the hurdles for Covax, including a lack of funding for any part of vaccination programs beyond doses at airports.

Mali, in West Africa, has administered 7 percent of the AstraZeneca doses administered by Covax. Sudan in East Africa has given 8 percent of the doses it has received.

Analysts fear that dissatisfaction with AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines could fuel demand for recordings made in Russia and China, which are far less well known. Some global health officials have turned their attention to the Novavax vaccine, which is not yet approved but makes up a third of the Covax portfolio.

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Texas, Mississippi elevate Covid restrictions, regardless of CDC warnings

Texas, Mississippi lift Covid restrictions, despite CDC warnings

Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks during an Operation Warp Speed ​​Vaccination Summit at the White House in Washington, DC on Tuesday, December 8, 2020.

Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Texas and Mississippi governors both announced Tuesday that they were lifting the statewide mask mandates and allowing companies to reopen at full capacity even as the decline in daily Covid-19 cases slows and federal officials urge states to exercise caution.

Texas governor Greg Abbott said at a press conference at Montelongo’s Mexican restaurant in Lubbock that he would issue a new executive order lifting most of his previous Covid-19 restrictions, including a statewide mask mandate. He added that effective March 10th, all companies should open “100 percent”.

“Removing statewide mandates does not end personal responsibility,” Abbott said in a crowded dining room where many did not wear masks. “It’s just that government mandates are no longer needed.”

“It is now time to open 100 percent Texas,” he added.

Around the same time as Abbott’s remarks, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves announced at a separate press conference that he was lifting all county mask mandates and lifting statewide restrictions on almost all businesses.

“I’m replacing our current orders with referrals,” Reeves said. “The only rules that stay in this order are a 50% capacity limit for indoor arenas and those governing K-12 schools.”

Both announcements come shortly after federal officials including the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who warned state officials not to be too quick to lift public health restrictions.

Walensky said Monday at a Covid-19 briefing at the White House that while daily incidence has declined rapidly since the peak in January, the decline appears to be leveling off with a worryingly high infection rate. She added that the spread of new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus poses a new threat that could reverse the nation’s progress, even if vaccines are introduced.

“At this level of cases where variants spread, we will completely lose the hard-earned ground we gained,” she said. “With these statistics, I’m really concerned that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19.”

“Please listen to me clearly: at this level of cases with spreading variant, we are going to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained,” she said.

– CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to this report.

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New warnings of a Covid ‘Christmas wave and New 12 months’s wave’

New warnings of a Covid ‘Christmas wave and New Year’s wave'

Dr. Stephen Parodi, director of Kaiser Permanente’s Nationwide Covid Response, warned that new coronavirus cases are imminent unless Americans change their behavior during a Tuesday night interview on The News with Shepard Smith.

“If we don’t make the choice now to change the future, I worry that we will see Christmas Day and a New Year wave in January, and hospitals will be beyond the breaking point of what we really see,” said Parodi.

According to the Covid Tracking Project, the US broke coronavirus records again this week. Wednesday marked the second deadliest day of coronavirus in the United States since the pandemic began, and on Thursday the country hit record hospital stays of 117,000 people in hospitals due to Covid. The virus is spiraling out of control in California. Nearly 19,000 people are being hospitalized because of the pandemic, and patients are being taken to the hallways of intensive care units. That’s one in six people hospitalized across the country.

Parodi told host Shepard Smith he was concerned about his employees who continue to work overtime and are exhausted. Parodi said his staff were frustrated that the current surge in cases could have been prevented, but instead they are now grappling with it after Thanksgiving.

Air traffic in the United States exceeded 1 million passengers a day on the weekend before Christmas, despite warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Parodi said he hoped the general public would prove the evidence of another surge in false cases and stay home this year.

“This year we have to make the sacrifice,” urged Parodi. “What I tell my patients is that this Christmas has to be different so that next year all the people we like to meet will be here next year.”