Riyadh:
Saudi Arabia on Sunday halted international flights and suspended entry via its land and sea ports for at least a week, following a new speedy-spreading strain of coronavirus appeared in Britain.
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 stated.
“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 at present in the kingdom, which will be permitted to leave, SPA stated.
The improvement comes following numerous European nations banned travel from Britain on Sunday as the UK government warned that a hugely infectious new strain of the virus was “out of control”.
SPA stated passengers who arrived in Saudi Arabia from Europe — or any nation exactly where the new strain was detected — beginning December 8 will be essential to self isolate for two weeks, and undergo testing.
Neighbouring Kuwait also announced a ban on Sunday on passenger flights from Britain more than the new strain of the virus.
Alarm bells are ringing across Europe — which final week became the 1st area in the globe to pass 500,000 deaths from Covid-19 — following it appeared that a more infectious strain of the virus was raging in components of Britain.
Last week, Saudi Arabia kicked off a 3-phase Covid-19 vaccination programme, following the 1st shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia has so far recorded more than 361,000 novel coronavirus situations, like more than 6,000 deaths – the highest amongst the Gulf Arab states. But the kingdom has also reported a higher recovery price.
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