Saudi Health Ministry: Vaccine not required to travel when flights resume

JEDDAH: Saudis leaving the Kingdom after March 31 will not require a COVID-19 vaccine to travel, a Saudi Health Ministry spokesman said on Saturday.

“There is no condition that states one must be vaccinated to travel. Studies for this are still ongoing. This matter is related to the Kingdom. Other countries might be applying this, but there is no condition in the Kingdom so far,” said Dr. Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Aly.

The Health Passport is a unique service issued by the Health Ministry’s “Twakkalna” application in cooperation with the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence and other entities. It is important that recipients of the vaccine have their appointments documented.

The ministry recorded 110 new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, raising the total number of infections to 363,692.

The Riyadh region recorded the highest case count with 40 cases, while Makkah reported 31, and the Eastern Province and Madinah region saw 12 cases each. Hail, the Northern Border region and Al-Jouf recorded zero cases.

There are now 2,024 active cases, 308 of which are in critical care.

There were 174 new recoveries recorded, raising the total number of recoveries to 355,382. The Kingdom’s recovery rate is holding steady at 97.7 percent.

The Kingdom recorded one of its lowest death rates in weeks after only four new coronavirus-related deaths were reported, raising the death toll to 6,286.

More than 11.3 million polymerase chain reaction tests have been conducted in the Kingdom since the beginning of the pandemic, with 37,043 completed in the past 24 hours.