Travel Ban To UAE And Some Other Nations: Saudi Arabia

On Saturday, July 3, 2021, The Saudi Ministry of Interior declared that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be restricting travel without permission to and from the UAE, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. The sudden travel ban can be attributed to the outbreak of the new mutant variants of the Coronavirus, which is becoming increasingly troubling.

More About The Travel Ban:

Flights taking passengers to the UAE, Ethiopia, and Vietnam as well as those bringing in passengers to Saudi from these three countries will be banned from Sunday, July 4^th, starting at 11 pm. Saudi nationals coming back before this Sunday will be excused.

Those who reach Saudi Arabia after the 4^th of July, including citizens of the Kingdom, have to compulsorily take part in institutional quarantine for 14 days. This information was provided by the state news agency SPA, which cited an interior ministry authority.

Those who had recently visited and departed from any one or all of these three countries will be exempt from the new rule. This is also applicable to the other nations on which the Kingdom of Saudi Araba has enforced a travel restriction. However, it is only relevant if this had occurred a minimum of 14 days before these passengers reached Saudi Arabia. The Arab News report also added that the entry of passengers from Afghanistan has also been blocked.

What Led To The Ban?

The restriction was declared only 7 weeks after Saudi had allowed fully vaccinated individuals to travel abroad, which came after more than a year of a ban on overseas trips. On Friday, the Kingdom reported 1,338 new Covid cases and 16 additional deaths. Citizens are therefore now prevented from traveling directly or indirectly without prior permission.

Although it wasn’t specifically mentioned, the new Delta mutation of the Coronavirus, which had emerged in India but is now detected in 85 counties at least, is a major cause of worry. It is the most contagious variant of the virus so far. Saudi Arabians are frequent visitors of the UAE, Dubai in particular. The reason why the UAE is among the counties to and from which travel has been banned is that the Delta variant of Corona was detected in the country in the previous week. The UAE has also halted flights to and from India.

Saudi Arabia has also established restrictions when it comes to the yearly Hajj pilgrimage.  It has officially recorded over 490,000 cases of Covid,  which includes almost 7,850 deaths. It is this dire situation that has led officials to announce the new travel suspension guidelines.