This Country Bans Indian Passengers Indefinitely; Citizens From 20 Countries Banned Due To Rise In Covid-19 Cases

In an attempt to keep a check on the number of Covid cases in Saudi Arabia, the country has put into place a temporary travel ban on entry from 20 countries, including India.

Saudi Arabia has already suspended air travel from India since September last year, however the new (temporary) list sees an addition of more countries.

The suspension (temporary) starting from Wednesday, includes Saudi Arabia’s neighboring nations like the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, too.

Saudi’s Travel Bans for These Countries

Saudi Arabia’s current Covid reports, as provided by the Johns Hopkins University, stands over 3.68 lakh cases and 6,383 deaths.

Thus, in order to put a check on the spread of more cases in the country, Saudi Arabia has banned air travel entries from 20 countries.

This will be a temporary suspension and has begun from Wednesday.

Here is the list of the 20 countries.

• India
• USA
• Egypt
• United Arab Emirates
• Lebanon
• Turkey
• Ireland
• Italy
• Portugal
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Argentina
• Brazil
• Indonesia
• Pakistan
• South Africa
• Germany
• United Kingdom
• France
• Japan

The travel ban is also extended to travellers who transited through any of the  aforementioned countries, within 14 days preceding the implementation of the ban.

Who All are Exempted from the Ban?

The present ban initiated from February 3 (Wednesday) is not the first of its kind, as a similar one was implemented in December, on detection of a new and more virulent strain in the UK.

Saudi had just resumed its ports for international flights on January 3, last month. 

While the ban implies on 20 countries, it will exempt  diplomats, Saudi citizens, medical practitioners and their families.