Qatar to loosen visa entry requirements following 'vaccination success'

Qatar will resume issuing family and tourist entry visas starting on July 12, as travel policies change based on health ministry coronavirus recommendations, the interior ministry announced.

In a statement on Thursday, the health ministry said that visitors would be granted visas, provided they follow protocols such as taking a PCR test to prove that they are free of the virus. 

Passengers transiting through Qatar will also have to provide results of a PCR test. At the same time, fully vaccinated arrivals must take an anti-bodies test upon arrival to determine if they need to be quarantined.

Doha will also begin a system that classifies countries into three categories that would determine visitors' levels of quarantine.

Only vaccinated or recovered tourists, people entering on business visas, and family members of residents who do not have Qatari ID numbers will be able to enter the country.

Citizens of other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will not be exempt from this, despite the bloc ensuring freedom of movement between the countries for its citizens.

Qatari residents who wish to travel abroad will also need to be issued a travel permit. Unvaccinated travellers to destinations not listed as green will have to book their institutional quarantine before leaving Qatar, the health ministry added.

Citizens and residents arriving showing symptoms of coronavirus will have to home-quarantine based on the onsite medical team's recommendations.

The ministry added the new regulations could be implemented with little doubt because Qatar is one of the top 10 countries worldwide in terms of the percentage of the population that completed their vaccination.

In total, Qatar has had 223,031 cases of coronavirus, 598 deaths and 220,904 recoveries.