International flights to resume in Saudi Arabia
Land borders and sea ports will also reopen…
Last week, Saudi Arabia made the move to close all international borders, cancelling overseas flights and prohibiting access to the Kingdom via land and sea. Now, Saudi Arabia has announced that it will lift those restrictions, resuming all international flights and reopening its borders from March 31.
The strict border closures were brought in on December 20, as the Kingdom responded to growing concerns over a new strain of Covid-19. At the time, international flights were suspended for one week, although that was then extended for a further week.
According to an official source, quoted in Gulf News, any foreign passengers who enter Saudi Arabia from the United Kingdom, South Africa, or any other country that is deemed to have the mutated Covid-19 strain, according to the Ministry of Health, must spend at least 14 days outside the impacted country before entering Saudi.
The article also notes that travellers from these Covid-19 hot spots must then undergo a PCR test once the 14 days has passed. If citizens and passengers are entering the country on humanitarian grounds (and are coming from countries with a widespread outbreak of the mutated strain), they must quarantine in their homes, under surveillance, for 14 days. They will be required to take a PCR test within 48 hours of their arrival, and a second test on the 13th day of quarantine.
For those passengers who are coming from countries where the new strain has been reported (but is not considered widespread), they will be required to quarantine in their homes for seven days, taking a PCR test on the sixth day.
All passengers from remaining countries are required to follow the existing precautionary measures, which include home quarantine for seven days OR home quarantine for three days along with a PCR test.
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