Riyadh: In yet another travel restrictions Saudi Arabia has banned travellers, including expatriates, from 20 countries starting 09:00 pm (local time) Wednesday.
The new travel ban is announced a new surge in the Kingdom of New Coronavirus Variant that was first detected in UK, South Africa and France.
Diplomats, medical staff and their families are however exempted from the new ban announced late in the evening Tuesday.
According to Arab News, travel will be banned from the UAE, Egypt, Lebanon, and Turkey, as well as the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Japan.
The ban also applies to travelers who transited through any of the 20 countries in the 14 days before a planned visit to the Kingdom.
Many passengers had been using Dubai as a transit hub from countries where there are no direct flights to Saudi Arabia, an option that is now no longer available.
Flights to and from Saudi Arabia were first suspended on March 14, 2020, two weeks after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the coronavirus outbreak was a pandemic.
Entry to the Kingdom by air, land and sea resumed on January 3, 2021, though travellers from some countries, including Umrah priligrims from India, Pakistan and some other countries were still not allowed.
Saudi Arabia had recently announced that the Pandemic was controlled in the Kingdom. Alarm bells started ringing after a few days ago some people were found infected with the New Strain of Covid-19.
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