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Covid-19 in Oman

Last update: 09/09/2021

Travelling to Oman is possible again!

Oman is open! After one and a half year of closure, the Sultanate reopened its borders to vaccinated tourists on the 1st of September 2021!

Regarding the covid-19, the entry conditions for people aged 18 and older are the following:

• Having received the 2 doses of one of the eight vaccines approved by the Omani government*. The second dose must have been received at the latest 14 days before the time of arrival in Oman.
• Carrying a negative PCR test performed within 72 hours prior to the arrival in Oman (or within 96 hours for flights of more than 8 hours). People travelling without this PCR test must get one upon arrival, at their own expense, and isolate themselves with a tracking bracelet until getting the result if it is negative or for 10 days if it is positive.
• Registering, before the arrival in Oman, on the covid19.emushrif.om website and upload the vaccine certificate and the PCR test (both must include a QR code). Online payment of 2.5 OMR (about 6 € or 7 USD).
  
• Download on your mobile the Tarassud+ and HMushrif applications.
• Carrying a health insurance covering covid-19 in Oman for a minimum of one month.

People younger than 18 years old are exempted from vaccine certificate and PCR test to enter Oman (people with medical conditions preventing them from getting vaccinated too).

* Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca, AstraZeneca-Covishield, Johnson & Johnson (only 1 dose is necessary), Sinovac, Sinopharm, Sputnik V.

Once in Oman, tourists must obviously follow the applicable rules, especially wearing a face mask in all public spaces.
Omani hotels apply since June 2020 the new sanitary and social distancing measures: complete and regular disinfection of the rooms and shared areas, temperature checking, mask and gloves wearing, staff training, specific measures in the kitchen, hand sanitiser available throughout the hotel, etc.
Muscat International Airport reopened for residents in October 2020 and received an international sanitary accreditation that same month.
 
To limit the risks of infection, the tours offered by Oman Self Drive Tours have several advantages: you travel as a couple, family or small group of friends and you drive your own car, without driver or guide. If you want to avoid large hotels, we offer many small accommodations, from rustic to very comfortable: private house, guesthouse of a few rooms or even wild camping. Moreover, with only 15 inhabitants/km² in Oman, it is easy to respect the safety distances during our nature, adventure and hiking itineraries!

The state of the covid-19 pandemic in Oman

In this early September, the virus circulation in Oman is at one of its lowest levels since the start of the epidemic and the vaccination campaign is well underway. The Delta strain wave is now behind and life went back to normal, without specific restrictions other than wearing face masks.

Overall, Oman managed rather well the coronavirus epidemic crisis, with to this day 900 deaths per million people, compared with 1100 to 2200 in UK, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland or France (source: www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/).

Among other factors, the quality of the health-care system, the Omani government’s early implementation of the restrictions and the very gradual return to normal allowed to avoid a strict lockdown of the population and the overwhelming of the health-care system during the three first waves. The Delta strain then arrived in the country, at a time when the vaccination rate was still low. This led to the fourth wave of June-July 2021, by far the most virulent one, which caused for the first time the saturation of the hospitals.
Thanks to the lockdown measures and the fast increase in number of vaccinated people, the epidemic is under control again, with figures among the lowest since the beginning of the crisis.

In Oman, the vaccination started on the 27th of December 2020. Although the supply was almost non-existent in spring, 58% of the population has already received at least one vaccine dose and 32 % two doses (sources: Oman Observer and National Centre for Statistics & Information).