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Riyadh had closed its borders on December 21 after a new strain of the coronavirus was discovered in the UK.
Saudi Arabia has announced that it will reopen its borders and resume international flights after a two-week suspension aimed at containing the spread of the new COVID-19 strain.
The kingdom ordered the lifting of “precautionary measures related to the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus,” the interior ministry said in a statement released by the official Saudi press agency on Sunday.
The kingdom’s authorities have recorded more than 363,000 cases to date, including at least 6,200 deaths, the highest among the Persian Gulf states. But the country has also reported a high rate of recovery.
Riyadh suspended international flights and access through ports and land crossings on December 21.
Other Gulf countries, Oman and Kuwait, which had taken similar measures, also lifted them in recent days.
But travelers returning from Britain, South Africa or “any country where the new variant of the coronavirus spreads” are subject to more restrictions, the statement added.
Foreigners coming from those countries must spend 14 days in another country before entering Saudi Arabia and submitting a negative test.
Saudi nationals returning from those countries will be able to enter directly, but must then spend two weeks in quarantine upon arrival and be subject to testing.
Last month, Saudi Arabia was one of the first Gulf countries to launch a nationwide inoculation campaign using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
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