Saudi Arabia lifts quarantine requirement for Covid vaccinated foreign visitors

Riyadh - Visitors from 20 other countries - including US, UAE, India, Britain - remain banned.

Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that foreign visitors arriving by air from most countries will no longer need to quarantine if they have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

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Visitors from 20 other countries - including the United States, India, Britain, Germany, France and the UAE - remain banned from entering the kingdom, however, under measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The civil aviation authority (GACA) said that from May 20 non-Saudi visitors arriving in the kingdom from eligible countries by air who are fully vaccinated, or have had Covid-19 and recovered, will no longer have to spend seven days in government-approved hotels as long as they provide an official vaccination certificate upon arrival.

Currently, all travellers coming into the kingdom need to quarantine for a period of seven to 14 days depending on the countries where they are coming from, and provide negative PCR tests.

Under the new rules, anyone over the age of eight years old who is not vaccinated must quarantine on arrival in Saudi Arabia for seven days at their own expense as of May 20 and provide a negative PCR test on the sixth day of their arrival, GACA said.