Saudi Arabia halts travel to, from 9 states over coronavirus fears

CAIRO – 9 March 2020: Saudi Arabian authorities on Sunday announced suspending travel to Egypt. Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, South Korea and Italy, in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The Kingdom so far confirmed 11 coronavirus cases.

The decision also includes banning those who have been in these countries during the past 14 days from entering Saudi Arabia and suspending flights and voyages between these nine countries and Saudi Arabia.

Exceptions include evacuation and trade trips while taking necessary measures to guarantee safety. The decision also grants the ministries of interior and health the authority to coordinate on the exceptional humanitarian cases.

Also, the Egyptian flag carrier EgyptAir announced suspending its flights to all cities of Saudi Arabia starting from March 9, until further notice.

Late in February, Saudi Arabia announced a temporary ban on entering the Kingdom for performing Umrah pilgrimage in Mecca, in an effort to prevent the spread of new coronavirus, a statement by the foreign ministry read.

The decision also includes a ban on visiting the country to Al-Masjid Al-Nabawi in Medina and a temporary suspension of tourist visas from countries which Saudi health authority see as dangerous due to the spread of the coronavirus.

The Saudi decision also temporarily bars Saudi citizens and citizens of the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) from moving to or from the kingdom using their national IDs. However, exceptions include Saudi citizens outside the kingdom who are willing to return in case they left the country by their national IDs and the GCC citizens inside the Kingdom, in case they need to leave Saudi Arabia.

Later, the Kingdom also suspended the pilgrimage for its own citizens and residents over coronavirus spread fears.