Saudi Arabia have temporarily canceled all international flights and also shutdown its land and sea ports, on Sunday.
The announced shutdown, which will last for 1week minimum, comes shortly after a new variation of covid-19 surfaced in Britain which is spreading at a rather alarming rate.
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is temporarily suspending all international flights — except in exceptional cases — for a period of one week, which can be extended by another week,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) declared.
“Entry to the kingdom through land and seaports will also be suspended for a week, which can be extended by another week,” SPA added, quoting the ministry of interior.
The SPA said, though, that international aircrafts which are presently in the kingdom, will be cleared to depart.
The news follows after many European countries banned travel movements from Britain, on Sunday.
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The UK government cautioned that a highly infectious new strain of the corona virus was fast spiraling “out of control”.
Saudi Press Agency stated that, beginning from December 8, passengers arriving Saudi Arabia from Europe or any country where the new strain was detected, will be required to go into self isolation for two weeks, and undergo testing.
There are growing concerns across Europe after the region became the first in the world to surpass 500,000 deaths from Covid-19, last week.
After the first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reached the kingdom, Saudi Arabia immediately flagged off a three-part Covid-19 vaccination programme, last week.
Saudi Arabia has recorded over 361,000 novel coronavirus cases so far, including over 6,000 deaths.
The figure is the highest among the states of the Gulf Arab states.
The kingdom, meanwhile, has also reported a high recovery rate.
Neighbours, Kuwait, also announced a ban on passenger flights from Britain, on Sunday, over the new strain of the corona virus.