Saudi Arabia suspends international flights, closes land and sea ports amid new COVID-19 strain
Saudi Arabia has suspended all international flights and also loses land and seaports amid new COVID-19 strain for a week, extendable for another, an official source at the Saudi Ministry of Interior said on Sunday.
“These procedures will be reviewed in light of the developments related to the pandemic, and what is received from the Ministry of Health,” the source said in a statement.
According to the statement, the ban excludes the movement of goods, commodities, and supply chains from countries where the mutated virus has not appeared, as determined by the Ministry of Health in coordination with the Ministry of Transport.
The ban on international flights will result in the suspension of Umrah for people from around the world.
In wake of the decision, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) announced the cancellation of flights to and from Saudi Arabia.
According to the spokesperson of the national flag carrier, Abdullah Khan, PIA flights to and from Saudi Arabia have been cancelled from December 21.
The cancelled flights of PIA include PK-9739 and PK-9739 from Multan-Jeddah-Lahore, many other flights i.e. Lahore-Jeddah-Lahore, Islamabad-Dammam-Islamabad, Lahore-Dammam-Lahore, Karachi-Madinah and Madinah-Karachi, Lahore-Madinah, Madinah-Multan and Madinah-Multan, Karachi-Jeddah-Karachi.
