Qatar rolls out new Covid policy for travelers

The Ministry of Public Health of Qatar has announced a set of updates to its COVID-19 Travel and Return Policy.

The policy updates include a revision of the previous Green, Red, Exceptional Red country list classification, featuring two categories of countries; Standard Health Measures and Red-List Health Measures.

These changes come due to a fall of Covid cases in Qatar as a result of the successful rollout of Qatar’s National Covid Vaccination Program, local media reported.

The testing requirement before traveling to Qatar has also been changed to within 48 hours from departure time at the country of origin.

Qatar citizens and residents are not required to bring PCR test before returning to Qatar, regardless of the departure country.

However, if they are unvaccinated/non-immune and coming from any of the countries that are subject to the Red Health Measures, the new update will not be applicable to them.

The Ministry stated that Qatar’s Travel and Return Policy has been a key measure in the nation’s Covid strategy.

Enforcing a strict policy for travelers entering Qatar has played a significant role in maintaining the successful Covid Strategy which enabled the country to have one of the lowest Covid mortality rates in the world, the ministry noted.

The policy updates come into effect from 28th February 2022 at 7 pm local Qatar time.