• Saudi Arabia bans travel for its citizens, and 15 other countries amid Covid-19 resurgence

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    Saudi Arabia bans travel for its citizens, and 15 other countries amid Covid-19 resurgence

    The Saudi government's Directorate General of Passports issued the travel ban on Saturday.


    Digital Desk: Saudi Arabia has announced travel restrictions for its citizens due to the recent resurgence of new Covid-19 infections.


    Along with 15 other countries, the country has prohibited its citizens from travelling to India.


    India, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Indonesia, Vietnam, Armenia, Belarus, and Venezuela are among the countries Saudi Arabia has asked citizens to avoid visiting.


    The Saudi government's Directorate General of Passports approved the travel ban. The restrictions apply to Saudi citizens who wish to travel to the countries mentioned above.


    However, no new guidelines on whether Indian nationals will be barred from entering the Gulf country have been issued.


    Saudi Arabia's health ministry also stated that the country has not yet reported any cases of monkeypox


    According to Abdullah Asiri, Deputy Minister of Health for preventive health, "Until now, transmission cases between humans have been very limited. Thus, the possibility of outbreaks occurring from it, even in countries where cases have been detected, is very low," 


    Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared that the Covid-19 pandemic is "definitely not over." "Though reported cases have decreased since the omicron wave, the pandemic is not yet over. "We lower our guard at our peril," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus."


    Tedros stated that "declining testing and sequencing means we are blinding ourselves to the evolution of the virus." Almost 1 billion people in lower-income countries are not yet vaccinated, according to Ghebreyesus.


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