Following the re-outbreak of Covid-19 and the rapid surge in the number of daily Covid infections over the past few weeks, Saudi authorities have released a list of 16 countries in which travel is banned following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
This comes despite growing momentum towards lifting restrictions globally.
The list includes Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Indonesia, Vietnam, Armenia, Belarus, and Venezuela, the local newspaper Okaz reported.
The General Directorate of Saudi Passports (Jawazat) has clarified the requirements for citizens traveling outside of Saudi, stating that the remaining validity of a passport should be greater than 3 months when traveling to Arab countries and greater than 6 months when traveling to other countries, and that the remaining validity of a national identity card should be greater than 3 months when traveling to GCC countries.
Jawazat also issued guidelines to nationals ahead of the upcoming summer vacation season, including the requirement for people without an exemption to vaccination to receive three doses of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in Saudi has assured the public that zero monkeypox cases have been detected in the country. Abdullah Asiri, Deputy Minister of Health for preventive health has said that Saudi has the capability to monitor and discover any suspected monkeypox cases and also to fight against the infection if any new case emerges.
