JEDDAH: The resumption of international flights at 1 a.m. on May 17 will exclude the 20 countries where the ban on flights continues as part of preventive measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), said Saudia airline.
The banned countries, named by the Ministry of Interior, are: Argentina, the UAE, Germany, the US, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Pakistan, Brazil, Portugal, the UK, Turkey, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Lebanon, Egypt, India and Japan.
The clarification came in response to a citizen’s query about whether the travel suspensions will continue.
Noncitizens, diplomats, health practitioners and their families traveling from the listed countries have been denied entry to the Kingdom since Feb. 3. The ban applies to arriving passengers who have passed through any of the prohibited countries in the 14 days prior to their application to enter the Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Education employees who have yet to receive the COVID-19 vaccine are to be identified and put on a list, Saudi online newspaper Ajel reported.
The decision is part of official efforts to ensure a swift return to normal schooling, while safeguarding the health and safety of students and staff.
Education Minister Hamad Al-Asheikh previously called on ministry employees to arrange for vaccination in time for the start of the coming academic year.
Saudi authorities on Wednesday reported 12 additional deaths related to COVID-19. The death toll now stands at 6,858. The Ministry of Health reported 1,028 new cases, meaning that 408,038 people have contracted the disease, of which 9,818 remain active.
It said 431 of the new cases were in Riyadh, 220 in Makkah, 157 in the Eastern Province and 45 in Madinah. Another 824 patients recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries to 391,362.
Saudi Arabia has conducted 16,352,116 PCR tests, including 58,507 in the previous 24 hours.
Saudi health clinics set up by the ministry as testing hubs or treatment centers have helped hundreds of thousands of people around the Kingdom since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Saudis and expats in the Kingdom continue to receive coronavirus vaccine shots, with 7,537,798 people having been inoculated so far.
Pakistan among 20 countries to remain on Saudi travel ban after May 17
https://arab.news/zxzew
Pakistan among 20 countries to remain on Saudi travel ban after May 17
- Clarification came in response to a citizen’s query about whether the travel suspensions will continue
- Ban applies to arriving passengers who have passed through any of the prohibited countries in the 14 days
Pakistani forces kill 24 militants in restive province bordering Afghanistan
- The militants were killed in separate intelligence-based operations in Orakzai and Khyber districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
- Pakistan witnessed a 28 percent increase in militant attacks in Jan., with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accounting for 38 out of 87 attacks nationwide
ISLAMABAD: Security forces have killed 24 Pakistani Taliban militants in two separate engagements in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the Pakistani military said on Friday.
In recent years, Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, mainly by the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), targeting security forces and police in KP, which borders Afghanistan.
The militants were killed in intelligence-based operations in KP’s Orakzai and Khyber districts conducted on reports about their presence, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
“Sanitization operations are being conducted to eliminate any other Indian-sponsored kharji [TTP militant] found in the area,” the ISPR said.
There was no immediate response by New Delhi to the Pakistani military’s statement.
Pakistan recorded a 28 percent increase in militant attacks in Jan. as compared to the previous month, with 87 incidents occurring across the country, the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) said in its report this month. Of these, 38 attacks took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 27 in Balochistan, where authorities have been battling a separatist insurgency, and two in the Punjab province.
Islamabad has frequently accused Afghanistan of allowing its soil and India of backing militant groups, including the TTP, for attacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi have consistently denied this.
