UAE bans citizens from travelling to Iran and Thailand

The United Arab Emirates banned its citizens from traveling to Iran and Thailand as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus.

The move follows a report by Iran’s semiofficial ILNA news agency on Monday that at least 50 people have died in the Iranian city of Qom since the outbreak of the virus within the country and around 250 people inside a seminary in Qom were believed to have been quarantined.

Iran’s deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi though refuted the claims in a news conference broadcast live on state television later the same day adding that 12 people had died from the coronavirus and 66 had been infected.

On Saturday, the UAE reported that an Iranian couple visiting the country were its latest cases, taking the total number of those infected to 13.

Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Iraq also Monday confirmed their first cases. Kuwait reported three, and Bahrain, Oman and Iraq one each.

The Kuwaiti infections were linked to people returning from Mashhad, a Muslim pilgrim site in Iran.

The Bahrain case was reported to be a citizen who had also arrived from Iran.

With inputs from Bloomberg