Saudi Arabian authorities will allow outbound flights with foreigners to resume after a temporary suspension due to a new, more infectious strain of coronavirus, state television announced on Sunday.
Under the new terms, any country that deals with the most infectious strain will still have restrictions, and flight crew members who land in Saudi Arabia will be confined to the plane, according to Bloomberg.
Last week, the kingdom announced that all international flights would be suspended due to the new variant, first detected in southeastern England. The ban was set to last for a week with the option to extend it if necessary.
Saudi Arabia has officially reported just over 361,000 cases of the virus, and official figures have not shown a second wave of the virus like that of several other countries, including Europe and many of the guidelines from the US Official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still advise Americans against traveling to the country.
Several countries responded to the new variant by banning flights from the United Kingdom. The United States was not among them on Sunday, and Anthony Fauci
Anthony FauciRubio criticizes Fauci for raising the herd’s immunity estimate to 90 percent Novavax starts phase 3 trial of the COVID-19 Fauci vaccine: Different state responses to a ‘major weakness’ in fighting the coronavirus MORE, the leading infectious disease specialist in the United States, said such a move could be an “overreaction” and said the strain probably already existed in the country. Public health experts said the strain does not appear to be more deadly and there is no reason to believe that vaccines will not be effective against it.