The kingdom is “temporarily suspending all international
flights — except in exceptional cases — for a period of one week, which can be
extended by another week,” the official Saudi Press Agency said.
“Entry to the kingdom through land and sea ports will also
be suspended for a week, which can be extended by another week,” SPA added,
citing the interior ministry.
The suspension does not apply to international aircraft
currently in the kingdom, which will be allowed to leave, SPA said.
The Gulf sultanate of Oman adopted similar measures.
It “decided (on Monday) to ban entry and exit from the
country through the various land, air and sea borders starting 1:00 am local
time on Tuesday December 22 for a week”, the official Oman News Agency
reported.
The decision was based on what “authorities in a number of
countries announced regarding the emergence of a new Covid-19 strain”, it said,
adding the suspension will not apply to cargo flights and vessels.
The development comes after several European countries
banned travel from Britain on Sunday as the UK government warned that a highly
infectious new strain of the virus was “out of control”.
SPA said passengers who arrived in Saudi Arabia from Europe
— or any country where the new strain was detected — starting December 8 will
be required to self isolate for two weeks, and undergo testing.
Neighbouring Kuwait also announced a ban on Sunday on
passenger flights from Britain over the new strain of the virus.
Alarm bells are ringing across Europe — which last week
became the first region in the world to pass 500,000 deaths from Covid-19 —
after it appeared that a more infectious strain of the virus was raging in
parts of Britain.
Last week, Saudi Arabia kicked off a three-phase Covid-19
vaccination programme, after the first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
arrived in the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia has so far recorded more than 361,000 novel
coronavirus cases, including more than 6,000 deaths –- the highest among the
Gulf Arab states. But the kingdom has also reported a high recovery rate.
AFP