Saudis visiting ‘red list’ states face travel ban
LONDON: Saudi Arabia will impose a three-year travel ban on citizens travelling to countries on the country’s “red list” under efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus ( COVID-19) and its new variants, state news agency SPA said on Tuesday.
It cited an unnamed interior ministry official as saying some Saudi citizens, who in May were allowed to travel abroad without prior permission from authorities for the first time since March 2020, had violated travel regulations.
“Anyone who is proven to be involved will be subject to legal accountability and heavy penalties upon their return, and will be banned from travel for three years,” the official said.
“The Ministry of Interior stresses that citizens are still banned from travelling directly or via another country to these states or any other that has yet to control the pandemic or where the new strains have spread,” the official said.
The move comes ater Saudi Arabia permitted fully immunised citizens to travel abroad, ater a ban on foreign trips that lasted more than a year.
The decision was taken due to “the spread of a new mutated strain of the virus,” the interior ministry said at the time, without explicitly mentioning the increasingly widespread Delta variant.
The variant, first detected in India and now present in dozens of countries around the world, is the most contagious of any COVID-19 strain yet identified.
Saudi Arabia had put major limits on the annual Hajj pilgrimage in an effort to combat infections and issued the first smart Hajj card for the 2021 season, which is linked to all the services such as entering the camps, using transportation, entering hotels, and paying through ATMS.
It also helped guide lost pilgrims, controlling entry to the camps and timing of grouping and transportation. The card served pilgrims throughout their journey.
The Emir of Makkah inaugurated the project of the Security Control Centre in Shumaisi, which is located on an area of 1.6 million square metres.
Meanwhile, Iraq recorded its biggest daily increase in COVID-19 infections on Tuesday with 12,185 cases, taking its total so far to 1,577,013, the health ministry said.
It reported 71 fatalities to take its COVID-19 death toll to 18,418, official data published by the health ministry showed.
The daily tally of cases has been rising since marking the Eid Al Adha holiday, which traditionally includes social gatherings where infections could spread and as many Iraqis flout safety and health measures.
The health ministry said on Tuesday that 1,480,784 people have been vaccinated so far.