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Omicron variant COVID-19: UAE parents in turmoil as winter travel plans face cancellation and chaos
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Omicron variant COVID-19: UAE parents in turmoil as winter travel plans face cancellation and chaos

by Tabitha BardaNovember 30, 2021

Three years ago, Slovakian expat and mum of two, Katarina Ballinger, started planning the holiday of a lifetime. After months and months of intense research and scrupulous saving up, she booked for herself and her husband, Brian, and their two children – Lily, then 7, and Alex, then 5 – to fly to Lapland to meet Father Christmas in December 2020.

The vacation of every child’s dreams, Katarina agonized over every detail of the trip – from the flights to Finland, to the hotel transfers, to the reindeer-drawn sleigh rides and the meeting with Santa himself. No detail was forgotten. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Until COVID-19 happened, of course.

Keeping the trip a secret as a surprise for her kids, Katarina’s heart leapt and fell with every lockdown announcement and airport closure over the pandemic-ridden months leading up to winter in 2020.

By the time it got close to December, it was clear that any flight to Lapland was totally out of the question.

Bitterly disappointed – but glad that she hadn’t yet told the children about it – Katarina put on a brave face and postponed all their plans for December 2021 instead.

With the dream holiday to Lapland postponed, Katarina Ballinger and her family spent Christmas 2020 in Dubai

Fresh hope for a new year

And this year seemed like it really would finally happen.

GEMS_INARTICLE  

As vaccines rolled out, case numbers came under control and the tightest restrictions of the pandemic thawed, Katarina allowed herself to get excited about their dream holiday once again.

An avid member of the Facebook group ‘Christmas Madness UAE’ – a forum for the UAE’s biggest Christmas fans to swap info on festive fun and deals across the emirates – Katarina was posting back in the summer about commissioning bespoke Christmas cake pops to spell out ‘Lapland’ for a big reveal of the holiday to her children.

And, just two days ago, the custom-made matching Lapland jumpers she’d ordered for the whole family finally arrived at the Ballinger’s family home in Dubai – but with the package came the gut-punch of bad news.

At almost exactly the same time as Katarina was unwrapping her much-anticipated novelty holiday tops, the news of the Omicron COVID variant and the first related airport closures broke around the world.

The new strain, which was first detected in South Africa, has been spreading across the globe, with cases detected in countries such as the UK, Germany, Italy and Australia.

Several countries have imposed travel restrictions as a results, with multiple airports pausing flights from certain countries, and stepped-up domestic safety measures being put in to place.

The World Health Organisation, which has classified Omicron a ‘variant of concern’, announced that the strain poses a high risk due to its “unprecedented number of spike mutations”.

Moderna Chief Stephane Bancel has today confirmed a “material drop” in vaccine efficacy.

The language being used by global media is one of alarm and lockdown.

“I can’t even process this news,” Katarina told Schools Compared. “At the moment I’m just covering my ears and trying to ignore it. But to be honest I had a big cry yesterday when I heard about Omicron.”

Katarina’s family were able to travel to Slovakia during the summer when restrictions were lifted at the last minute

The ghost of Christmas past

Table with names proposed for new Covid-19 variants

The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) announcement of this new COVID variant of concern on November 26 2021 has led to a Groundhog-Day-style revisit of all the anxieties, worries and powerlessness that first swept over UAE parents in early 2020 as the radical reality of the pandemic began to emerge.

For Katarina, it’s burst her bubble of joy once again. Although nothing has yet been announced that would mean the family isn’t able to fly to Finland for Christmas, Katarina is still smarting from the experience of 2020, and fears that the same thing might happen again.

“I am so stressed and anxious about this situation,” she says. “I’m ready to collapse and just throw everything away. I’ve invested so much money and energy and time into this over the last three years. I’ve bought all the winter clothes for the kids, I’ve got all of the itinerary planned and ordered, I’ve got matching Lapland tops… The airline has already changed our flights four times now, and every time I’ve had to pay change fees to reshuffle the accommodation and excursions and so on. If this does not happen again this year, I’m ready to have a nervous breakdown to be honest.”

Although she is aware that it is a huge privilege to have the possibility of holidaying in Lapland at all, the ups and downs of the past two years have been an emotionally torturous rollercoaster, and she is grieving for the carefree treat of a holiday that she had so desperately dreamt of.

“I know it’s not the end of the world, as long as we are healthy and all that, but I can be unhappy about it and feel like this, because so much has been invested in this holiday. Yes there are bigger things in the world, but for me this is a major thing. It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. And it’s proving to be a nightmare.”

Flying home for Christmas?

Katarina is by no means alone. In the run-up to UAE schools’ Winter Break from 9 December, authorities are encouraging residents not to travel abroad if possible.

Dr Farida Al Hosani, the UAE government’s spokesperson for the health sector, reminded people of the much more serious COVID situation abroad and warned against non-essential travel.

“The increase in cases and deaths has returned in many countries due to poor vaccinations and negligence in procedures,” she wrote on Twitter.


“Travelling is allowed, but travel with awareness and planning. Do not expose yourself and others to the complications of Covid-19 or the complications of the increase in cases that cause bans and closures. And don’t fail to wear masks.”

She argues that people should stay in the UAE and enjoy its good weather instead.

“It is best to holiday inside the country and enjoy the beautiful weather and lovely places”, she said.

Dr Rania Ayat Hawayek, Specialist Paediatrician, Medical Director & Owner, Circle Care Clinic, agrees that families should be cautious in their approach to travelling abroad, and reassess in the light of new information as it is revealed. “We don’t know enough about the new Omicron variant yet, but it does seem to be different from Delta in that it has multiple areas of mutations.

“What we don’t know is how significant these mutations are. Will this make this variant more contagious? Will It make it more resistant to the protection that we have from vaccines or previous infection? Which is why we’ve seen many countries take precautions and close borders.

“But we don’t currently have enough evidence to say that this is particularly more dangerous. But it might be.”

With the previous experience of last year’s travel bans in our collective recent memory, we are all too aware of how rapidly situations can deteriorate, with families being separated as airports shut down to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Dr Hawayek says, “I think if parents are travelling to a place which looking ahead might close its borders then yes, it might make sense to re-evaluate your travel plans. It depends on how essential it is for them to be back in the UAE at a specific time.”

The purpose of travel can also make a difference, she adds: “I would say that if parents are travelling to a home environment to visit family, that is more likely to be fairly safe. But it they are travelling to be tourists in a destination where they will be mingling with other tourists, possibly where safety measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing are not adhered to as well as they are here in the UAE, then it may be worth re-thinking based on that.”

Dr Rania Ayat Hawayek is a Specialist Paediatrician at Circle Care Clinic in Dubai

Adapting to another new normal

For British expat Sophie Hoult, an HR professional and mother of two boys living in Dubai, the news of Omicron has not yet deterred her from travelling to visit family back home in mid-December – despite the fact that newly reintroduced rules mean that they will all need to take PCR tests on arrival and self-isolate until they receive the results. “We are going only because we haven’t seen family for two years. But we are paying over the odds to get our PCR tests done as quickly as possible so that we can get out of isolation.”

The fact that this is happening over the Christmas period – a time that is very special for many expat families – has made the decision all the more fraught. “If this had been happening in the summer then I wouldn’t be going considering the news of this new variant. It’s definitely put a big downer on a holiday we have really been looking forward to.”

It’s a similar story for Lindsay Nunn, a travel consultant and mother of three living in Dubai. “My family and I are travelling back to the UK for the first time in two and half years and we are making sure we abide by the new conditions,” she says.

Due to family health issues, she feels she has no choice but to travel now, despite the possible risks. “In an ever-changing environment it is hard, but also having spent so long away from family with them unable to travel due to health it is now time.”

As an advisor for Travel Counsellors, Lindsay does have some words of hope, though. “The reality is we are living in a world that is fully changeable currently. My advice would be to book ahead and on as flexible terms as possible, and be ready for change. The UAE is one of the most resilient travel markets and people have continued to travel throughout the pandemic. I cannot see this changing.”

British expat Sophie Hoult is still hoping to travel back to the UK in mid-December, despite newly re-introduced safety precautions announced by the UK government

A case of ‘wait and see’

With the recent approval of vaccine boosters for adults in the UAE, as well as the approval of both the Sinopharm and Pfizer vaccines for children from the age of 3 (Sinopharm) and 5 (Pfizer), the country is in a strong position for protecting the whole population’s health as much as possible. “With the emergence of more and more new variants, the benefits of vaccines, especially for the younger age group, become higher,” says Dr Hawayek.

Nevertheless, the fact that COVID-19 is rearing its ugly head once again, just as we all thought we were on the homeward stretch, is frustrating for UAE parents. As Katarina Ballinger says: “It’s just never-ending. When will this stop? When will we be able to just enjoy planning and travelling without stressing and worrying? The most frustrating part is that I can’t do anything about it. It’s out of our hands.”

Perhaps the best lesson that we have all learnt during the pandemic is one of resilience. “I’m trying to be positive and optimistic,” adds Katarina. “At the moment it’s just a case of ‘wait and see’”.

© SchoolsCompared.com. 2021. All rights reserved.

About The Author
Tabitha Barda
Tabitha Barda is the Senior Editor of SchoolsCompared.com. Oxbridge educated and an award winning journalist in the UAE for more than a decade, Tabitha is one of the region's shining lights in all that is education in the emirates. A mum herself, she is passionate about helping parents - and finding the stories in education that deserve telling. She is responsible for the busy 24x7 News Desk, our Advisory Boards and Specialist Panels - and Parents United's WHICHPlaydates - a regular meeting place for UAE parents to discuss the issues that matter to them, make friends and network with others. You can often find Tabitha too on Parents United - our Facebook community board, discussing the latest schools and education issues with our parent community in the UAE - and beyond.

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