Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has suspended a flight to three countries, including the neighbor of the United Arab Emirates, to protect against the Coronavirus variant, the Interior Ministry on Saturday.
The move came seven weeks after the oil-rich kingdom allowed citizens who were fully immunized to travel abroad, after a ban on foreign travel which lasted more than a year.
UAE, and especially Dubai, is the main recreational goal for Saudi.
Flights to and from the UAE, along with those who went to Ethiopia and Vietnam, will be suspended from Sunday, said an Interior Ministry official, quoted by the State News Help Spa.
Residents and Saudi residents who return from these countries will be asked to quarantine for 14 days, he added.
Residents will be banned “from traveling directly or indirectly, without getting a previous permission from …
Authorities”.
The decision was taken because “the spread of new strains of viruses (Covid-19)”, he added, without explicitly mentioning the Delta variant which increased globally.
The variant, first detected in India and is now present at least 85 countries, is the most contagious of the Covid-19 variant identified.
UAE announced last week it has recorded Delta variants and has been suspended flights to and from India.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has put the main limit on the annual pilgrimage pilgrimage.
It has officially recorded more than 490,000 cases of Coronavirus, including nearly 7,850 deaths.
Oil-rich Gulf State is home to large expats from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.