DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s civilian aviation authority has updated entry mechanisms and procedures for airline passengers arriving in the Kingdom related to efforts in curbing the coronavirus pandemic.
The new measures become effective on Thursday, September 16.
In an instruction sent to all airliners operating in the Kingdom, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said that passengers who received at least a dose of approved COVID-19 vaccines in the Kingdom would be allowed provided that a passenger submits a negative PCR test taken 72 hours before the flight.
The passenger must also undergo institutional quarantine for five days and must take a PCR test within 24 hours upon arrival and also the fifth day. The individual should take notice of the time their tests were taken through the Tawakkalna application.
The period of institutional quarantine ends with the appearance of a negative test result, GACA said.
The civilian aviation body also noted the same rules would apply to passengers who have been inoculated with at least a dose of vaccines neither approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) nor Saudi Arabia’s health authorities, or by a WHO-approved jab but not approved in the Kingdom.
GACA meanwhile said that unvaccinated dependents below 18 years old traveling with fully vaccinated relatives are subject to a five-day home quarantine and must take a PCR test on the fifth day.
Unvaccinated dependents who are eighteen years of age or older must undergo institutional quarantine, GACA added.
The authority also emphasized that passengers who finished their institutional quarantine must complete their COVID-19 vaccine doses.
Individuals who were given the Sinopharm and the Sinovac vaccines – currently not approved in Saudi Arabia – should obtain a booster dose from one of the vaccines available in the Kingdom after arrival, GACA added.
Saudi Arabia’s civilian aviation body updates entry mechanisms for airline passengers
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Saudi Arabia’s civilian aviation body updates entry mechanisms for airline passengers
Saudi, Pakistan defense chiefs discuss ‘measures needed to halt’ Iranian attacks on Kingdom
RIYADH: Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Pakistan’s Chief of Defense Forces Asim Munir discussed Iran’s attacks on the Kingdom, amid the escalating military conflict in the Middle East.
“We discussed Iranian attacks on the Kingdom and the measures needed to halt them within the framework of our Joint Strategic Defense Agreement,” Prince Khalid wrote on social media early on Saturday.
“We stressed that such actions undermine regional security and stability and expressed hope that the Iranian side will exercise wisdom and avoid miscalculation.”
The US and Israel began a large-scale military campaign against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran has since attacked a number of sites across the Gulf.
Tehran has also attacked US and Israeli military assets as the war as escalated, impacting lives in the peaceful Arabian Gulf peninsula and risked shaking the global economy as Iran continued restricting energy shipping along the Strait of Hormuz.
The Saudi Defense Ministry said a number of drones had been shot down that were targeting the Shayba oil field in the Empty Quarter on Saturday.
A drone attacked the US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday causing a minor fire, but no one was hurt in the incident.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a “Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement” in September, pledging that aggression against one country would be treated as an attack on both.
Separately, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif, the Saudi interior minister, received a call from his Pakistani counterpart Raza Naqvi, who condemned the blatant attacks targeting the Kingdom and affirmed his country’s solidarity in confronting any threats to the Kingdom’s security and stability, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday.
