Saudi Arabia to slap three-year travel ban on people visiting red-listed Vietnam

The Saudi Press Agency cited an unnamed interior ministry official as saying some citizens, who in May were allowed to travel abroad without prior permission from authorities for the first time since March 2020, had violated travel regulations.

A ban has been in place for travel to and from 13 countries including Vietnam due to concerns about the spread of more infectious variants of the coronavirus.

Saudi Arabia has had 490,464 Covid cases and 7,848 deaths so far.

The highly transmissible Delta variant has become the most prevalent in many countries, including Vietnam where most new cases are linked to it.

It is currently facing its most challenging outbreak so far, prompting several countries to ban or impose stricter quarantine measures for travelers from Vietnam.

Three months into its fourth wave, the country has recorded 113,294 cases.