(Bloomberg) --

The United Kingdom will accept vaccinations administered in the United Arab Emirates next month, in a boost to travel between two of the world’s busiest hubs.

“We will be accepting UAE vaccination certificates from 4th Oct following updates to their vaccination app,” British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Twitter Wednesday. 

The easing of restrictions on travel between the UAE and Britain comes as Dubai prepares to host millions of people for one of the world’s biggest in-person events since the pandemic started. The Dubai Expo 2020 global trade fair begins on Oct. 1 and the city hopes to attract 25 million visits to the six-month event.

Dubai International Airport, the world’s biggest by international traffic, counts London as its top destination. Hundreds of thousands of British expatriates reside in the UAE and the Dubai-Heathrow route was the 8th busiest globally in September, according to flight-bookings specialist OAG. 

Read: Dubai Airports Sees Doubling of Visitors in 2022 as Curbs Ease

“We had 7.7 million passengers between the UAE and U.K. in 2019, before coronavirus, and we want to get back there and beyond,” Shapps told Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper in an interview. The minister’s first trip abroad since the pandemic will be to the UAE next month, he said.

The UAE has rolled out one of the fastest vaccination campaigns in the world. Infections have been dropping steadily, with daily cases falling below 400 on Sunday for the first time in more than a year. 

(Updates with UAE cases, vaccines in final paragraph.)

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