SAN FRANCISCO, December 20, (THEWILL) – Saudi Arabia on Sunday halted international flights and suspended entry through its land and sea ports for at least a week, after a new fast-spreading strain of Coronavirus appeared in Britain.
A statement by the Interior Ministry’s spokesman, Dr. Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Aly, said the kingdom is “temporarily suspending all international flights — except in exceptional cases — for a period of one week, which can be extended by another week.
“Entry to the kingdom through land and sea ports will also be suspended for a week, which can be extended by another week.”
The statement further clarified that the suspension does not apply to international aircraft currently in the kingdom, which will be allowed to leave,
The development comes after several European countries banned travel from Britain on Sunday as the UK Government warned that a highly infectious new strain of the virus was “out of control”.
United Arab Emirates-based Air Arabia PJSC said Monday it will halt flights from Morocco to the U.K. until further notice.
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Saudi Arabia has reported about 361,010 cases of COVID-19 and 6,122 deaths. It began lifting the lockdowns from May.
Officials had not imposed any new restrictions since then and the country has so far avoided another wave of infections.
