Saudi Arabia bans citizens from traveling to 16 countries, including India amid new COVID-19 outbreaks

Saudi Arabia has banned its citizens from travelling to 16 countries following the re-outbreak of COVID-19 and the rapid surge in the number of daily Covid infections over the past few weeks.

The list of countries includes Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Indonesia, Vietnam, Armenia, Belarus, and Venezuela.

As per Khaleej Times, the General Directorate of Passports (Jawazat) emphasized that the validity of the passport for Saudis, who intend to travel to non-Arab countries, must be more than six months, Saudi Gazette reported.

According to the statement, the validity of the passport should be more than three months for traveling to Arab countries. As for citizens, who travel to other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, the validity of their national ID card must be more than three months.

The Jawazat reiterated that the soft copy of the national ID on Absher and Tawakkalna applications is not sufficient for travel to GCC states.

The original ID card and the family registry must be produced for the travel in addition to a document of proof of dependents inside the Kingdom whose holders are unable to travel to the Gulf countries.

Regarding the health requirements for Saudis traveling outside the Kingdom, the Jawazat listed the following requirements:

- Received three doses of Covid-19 vaccine, with the third dose received after three months of taking the second dose

- Exemptions for those groups who have received a vaccine waiver on medical grounds as per the status on the Tawakkalna application

- Those under 16 and 12 require two doses of the vaccine