Saudi Arabia reintroduces PCR test requirement for fully vaccinated arrivals

RIYADH — Those coming from outside Saudi Arabia, including citizens, are required to submit an approved negative PCR test or negative antigen test 48 hours before their departure, regardless of their immunization status, The Ministry of Interior Spokesman Lt. Col. Talal Al-Shalhoub confirmed on Sunday.

The Interior Ministry spokesman, at the press conference here on Sunday, reiterated the security updates related to COVID-19 pandemic. As the Ministry of Interior has stated earlier that all Saudi citizens must take the booster dose of the coronavirus vaccine to travel outside the Kingdom, starting from Feb. 9 (Rajab 8).

He stated that the "immune" status is mandatory for anyone wanting to attend any social, economic, commercial, cultural, scientific, entertainment or sporting event, boarding planes and public transportation in the country.

Al-Shalhoub revealed that a total of 24,319 protocol violations were detected during the past week in all regions of the Kingdom.

On his side, the Ministry of Health official spokesman Dr. Muhammad Al-Abdel Ali said the world is close to recording 400 million of the confirmed cases of COVID-19.

While he confirmed, the Coronavirus curve in Saudi Arabia is heading downward, as it has been expected after its high peak in the last two weeks.

The spokesman said that the rate of corona tests in the Kingdom has increased from 5 to 7 times previous years, reaching about 150,000 tests per day.

New COVID-19 cases in Saudi Arabia continued to slide below the 4,000-mark on Sunday with 3,260 new infections recorded over the past 24 hours.

Saudi Arabia has administered more than 58 million doses of the vaccines till date since the start of vaccination.