Saudi Arabia will impose a three-year travel ban as well as severe fines on citizens who go to nations on the COVID-19 red list, which includes India.

“Travelling to the banned countries is an obvious violation of COVID-19 related travel restrictions and the Kingdom’s updated instructions,” the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Tuesday, according to Gulf News.

According to the SPA article, a Saudi Ministry of Interior official has warned Saudi citizens against travelling to countries that have lately been placed on a no-travel list due to an increase in incidents of COVID-19 and its variants.

UAE, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Ethiopia, Somalia, Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Belarus, India, and Vietnam are among the countries on the red list.

According to the Press Trust of India, a source told the SPA that there have been allegations of citizens travelling to banned nations in contravention of official authorities’ orders.

According to the news agency PTI, people who break the travel ban will be held accountable and face harsh punishments, with those who break the rules being barred from travelling abroad for three years.

The ministry warned citizens against travelling directly or indirectly to nations on the red list, where the pandemic has yet to be contained and mutant coronavirus strains are on the rise.

It also advised citizens to exercise caution and avoid regions where there is instability or where the virus is spreading, and to take all necessary precautions regardless of their destination.

The kingdom, which has a population of almost 30 million people, reported 1,379 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday, bringing the total to 520,774 cases and 8,189 deaths.

Daily infections decreased from a high of over 4,000 in June 2020 to less than 100 in early January.

– India’s new age travel digital media