SEYCHELLES
- Great news… Seychelles is now Covid-19 Free!
- Travel restrictions will end on 01 June when the Seychelles International airport will reopen.
- We are awaiting clarity regarding the possibility of a 14-day quarantine and which nationalities will be permitted entry in the gradual opening phase.
- All the National Parks and some lodges plan to open from next week.
- Only domestic travel is currently allowed.
- The borders remain closed.
- Mozambique remains in a state of emergency.
- No visas will be issued for travel to Mozambique during this time.
- Anyone travelling into Mozambique or through any border has to self quarantine for 14 days.
- No tourists are allowed into Mozambique currently.
- Most hotels / lodges have closed for now as most guests enter via South Africa which is in lock down.
- When South Africa opens its borders into Mozambique and flights are allowed to travel from South Africa into Mozambique again, then operations will resume.
- Mozambique nationals are still allowed to travel throughout Mozambique and stay at any hotels that are open.
- Namibia is under Level 2 of their lockdown, which means all those residing in Namibia can travel around freely within the country but no outsiders are allowed into the country and thus the borders are still closed to international travel.
- The current plan is that Namibia is looking at opening the borders gradually by the end of June. This gradual opening of the borders will most likely only be for selected countries and may extend until September with no set schedule in place, subject however to possible quarantine conditions, but we do not know yet what the specifics of quarantine would be if any.
- South Africa will be moving to level 3 from 01 June 2020, however certain ‘hotspots’ will be monitored and may be adjusted back to a more strict level 4 or 5 every 2 weeks dependent on infection rates.
- Level 3 means that a few more business sectors can return to work, certain grades of school and groups of universities can return, no limit to exercising hours (but still not in groups) but the borders remain closed.
- The President has advised that he has had “regular engagements” with the tourism, hotel and restaurant industry regarding the challenges they are facing. These respective sectors had submitted several proposals they intended to put in place to de-risk operations when facilities re-opened, Ramaphosa said. “We are giving consideration to those proposals,” he added.
- Lockdown in Zimbabwe remains as is. There have been no changes and the borders remain closed.
- Movement is restricted to shopping and essential travel.
- National Parks remain closed.
- Zambia is not in lockdown.
- Tourism visas are not being issued at this stage.
- The Falls have been reopened for local tourism.
- All airports are open for resident flights only and Lusaka remains the only airport open for International travel.
- The 14 day quarantine has been lifted. Those that are symptomatic need to self-isolate.
- Kenya is still under strict lockdown conditions with an expected announcement on the way forward at the end of this week.
- Tanzania has given instructions to the hotel and safari companies to be open for business in June.
- However, there is not much information as to when and which airlines will begin flying into Tanzania again.
- At the moment, there is still a quarantine period required on entry but with the government’s instructions to get tourism moving again, they will have to lift the 14-day isolation requirement.
- Rwanda has partially lifted the national lockdown.
- Rwanda’s borders remain closed except for transit and for returning citizens, who will be subjected to a 14-day mandatory quarantine.
- Uganda has partially lifted the national lockdown.
- Uganda’s borders remain closed and they have not yet indicated when they expect to remove these arrival bans.
- Madagascar is still in lockdown with no passenger international flights allowed to fly in. Domestic flights are still grounded.
- There is the possibility of Nosy Be opening to International flights within the next month.
MALDIVES
- Maldives is still in lockdown.
- The latest news we have is that the Maldives is looking at opening up from 01 July 2020 however they are still in discussions on how this will be done.
- There is a big announcement planned by the Maldives Tourism Company on 08 June about the final opening dates and the rules that come with it.
- The Curfew Order for the island of Mauritius was extended to 01 June 2020.
- There is still no word as to when the Airport will open or International arrivals procedures when they do.
