Sri Lanka bans passengers from Qatar, other Gulf countries from July 1-13

The Sri Lankan authorities have announced a temporary ban on passengers coming from the Gulf countries.

This comes into effect at 12.01am on July 1 and continues until 11.59pm on July 13, Sri Lankan time.In a notice posted on social media yesterday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka said: "In accordance with instructions received from the National Operations Centre for Prevention of Covid-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) Task Force due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation, the director-general of Civil Aviation, Capt Themiya Abeywickrama, has informed all airlines that passengers with a travel history in the past 14 days to Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait will not be permitted to disembark in Sri Lanka with effect from 0001hrs on 1st July 2021 (local time in Sri Lanka). This restriction will be in force until 2359hrs on 13th July 2021 (local time in Sri Lanka)."Passengers transiting via the above-mentioned countries will be permitted.Following the announcement, SriLankan Airlines said it has advanced the schedules of two Doha-Colombo flights due to the disembarkation restrictions.Flight UL 222, which was earlier scheduled to depart from Doha at 8.20pm on July 1 and reach Colombo at 3.35am (next day), will now operate on June 30 as flight UL 1512 and leave Doha at 3.50pm, arriving in Colombo at 11.05pm.Similarly, flight UL 218, which was earlier scheduled to depart from Doha at 8.50pm on June 30 and reach Colombo at 4.05am (next day), will now operate on June 30 as UL 1508 and leave Doha at 4.20pm, arriving in Colombo at 11.35pm.Passengers with negative Covid-19 rapid antigen and PCR test results will be accepted, the airline said in the notice on Facebook.