Saudi Aviation Chiefs Give Green Light for Virus 'Immune' Travelers to Enter Country

May 20—JEDDAH — The Saudi airports authority has given takeoff clearance for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) "immune" travelers to jet into the Kingdom.

Officials from the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) have set out the conditions for allowing passengers arriving by air to enter the country.

In a Twitter post, the authority said that entry permission would be granted for Saudi citizens and residents shown to be "immune" from the virus on the Tawakkalna app, those who had received two doses of vaccine or had spent 14 days quarantining after their first jab, and people who had been recovered from COVID-19 for a period not exceeding six months.

Non-citizens and residents would be allowed in after registering online proof, in advance of their journey, of having gone 14 days since receiving full vaccination with a Kingdom-approved vaccine.

Meanwhile, the Saudi General Directorate of Passports on Thursday announced that travelers from outside of the Kingdom needed to complete an online vaccination register prior to their arrival in the country by going to https://muqeem.sa/#/vaccine-registration/home.

It said the electronic process would help to speed up passenger entry procedures but pointed out that registration was limited to citizens of Gulf Cooperation Council countries and holders of new visas.

The passports directorate added that it had completed travel procedures for citizens through 19 land and air entry points after the suspension of travel abroad was lifted.

The Saudi Ministry of Interior on Wednesday announced that from May 17 until 1 p.m. of May 18, 10,452 people had traveled out of the Kingdom (4,735 via airports and 5,717 through land borders) to five main destinations. The UAE was the most popular flight destination for Saudis followed by Egypt, and then Qatar, the US, and the UK.

A total of 3,362 people crossed the King Fahd Causeway to Bahrain.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education on Thursday urged its employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine jab before Aug. 1 in order to be able to gain entry to educational facilities.

"The entry of all the ministry's employees and beneficiaries will be for the fully immune, immune by first dose only, or recovering immune individuals," the ministry said. And it pointed out that verification through the Tawakkalna app would be a prerequisite for entering all premises affiliated to the ministry.

The controls and rules will apply to universities, public institutions for technical and vocational training, education departments and their affiliated facilities.

Appointments for a vaccine jab, available at more than 587 locations throughout the Kingdom, can be made via the Sehhaty app.

Education ministry officials have also published details of procedures for a return from online learning to physical classes.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia reported 13 more COVID-19-related deaths on Thursday taking the toll to 7,214. The Ministry of Health recorded 1,330 new cases, meaning 437,569 people in the country had now contracted the disease. There were 8,629 active cases of which 1,365 patients were in a serious or critical condition.

Of the newly reported cases 381 were in Makkah, 350 in Riyadh, 161 in the Eastern Province, and 115 in Madinah.

In addition, 1,055 patients had recovered from COVID-19, putting the total number of recoveries in the Kingdom at 421,726.

Saudi Arabia has so far conducted 18,288,859 polymerase chain reaction tests, with 93,896 carried out in the last 24 hours, and 12,350,748 people have been inoculated against the virus.

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