In an attempt to prevent the highly infectious coronavirus from spreading even further in the country, Saudi Arabia has announced the “temporary suspension” of international arrivals from 20 countries. The list that was released on Tuesday also includes the name of India and the United States.
Though the nation had placed the ban on flights reaching the Gulf country from India in September 2020 itself, the latest announcement has listed more countries, preventing citizens of the region to land in the Arab territory.
The ban will come into effect from Wednesday until the government decides to uplift it during a safer period of time. However, the suspension is not applicable to certain people like Saudi citizens, diplomats, medical practitioners, and their families.
This ban is, nevertheless, in place for some of Saudi’s neighbors as well, including the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
Joining the list are 16 other countries- Italy, Lebanon, Pakistan, Indonesia, Sweden, Portugal, South Africa, Turkey, Ireland, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
Moreover, people who have been to any of these 20 countries within the last 14 days prior to the announcement of the ban are also restricted from entering Saudi Arabia, the country’s internal ministry stated.
December 2020 alarmed many countries after the United Kingdom had announced the new variant found in the region. This compelled several nations to place a suspension on air travel to and from the UK, including Saudi. However, the ban was lifted by the government as it reopened the ports and began international flights from January 3rd, 2021.
The fresh restrictions arrive days post Saudi’s announcement regarding the postponement of the lifting of the travel ban for its citizens along with the reopening of ports starting March 31st till May 17th.
The health minister had stated that the end of the travel ban had to be rescheduled because of delays in receiving the vaccine for covid-19.
Currently, the country is fighting with more than 3.68 lakh coronavirus cases and has reported 6,383 fatalities, as per the information gathered by the John Hopkins University.
