Saudi Arabia lifts direct travel ban on India and five more

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia ended the direct travel ban on India and five more countries on Wednesday as the nation continued relaxing its pandemic related travel restrictions.

Travellers from India, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Brazil and Vietnam no longer need to spend 14 days outside those countries before entering the Kingdom. But they will require a valid PCR test certificate and must register on the Qdoom platform 72 hours ahead of their flight's departure.

They will have to spend five days of international quarantine after arriving in the Kingdom, regardless of their immunisation status outside of it. Also, tests should be taken on the first and fifth days of their quarantine.

Though the nation had eased travel restrictions to certain countries, it was forced to impose fresh restrictions on some African countries after the new covid variant, Omicron, was detected in South Africa.