Manama: Saudi Arabia has resumed international flights and reopened its land and sea ports amid strict precautions against the new COVID-19 variant.
Saudi reimposed a temporary travel ban and banned entry into the country as a precautionary measure on Dec. 20 following the detection of a mutated variant of Covid-19 in a number of European countries including the UK.
Entry into the country resumed at 11 am Sunday and some restriction will be in place, the ministry of interior said.
Non-Saudis coming from the UK, South Africa, and other countries where the coronavirus strain had been reported must stay at least 14 days out of these countries before entering the country. They must also undergo a PCR test after the expiry of this period to rule out that they don’t have coronavirus.
Saudi citizens arriving from these countries are allowed to enter on humanitarian and essential cases. They must be quarantined in their homes under observation for 14 days. They have to take two PCR tests- the first after arrival within a maximum of 48 hours, and the second before the end of the quarantine, on the 13th day.
The current precautionary measures will be followed for passengers from countries where the variant has not been found, including home quarantine for seven days, or the home quarantine for 3 days, and a PCR test.
Saudi Arabia has started vaccination against COVID-19, starting with those considered high risk and frontline workers.
Meanwhile, Saudi has also seen a steady drop in the number of new Covid-19 cases and fatalities.
The Ministry of Health recorded only 82 new cases on Sunday, the lowest number in nine months.
A total of 3,63,061 people have contracted the disease in the Kingdom so far. Of these 3,54,443 patients recovered, with the recovery rate rising to 97.57 percent. The total number of deaths from the virus as of January is 6,246.
