Saudi Arabia free from new virus variant, health ministry says

Agencies | Riyadh

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Saudi Ministry of Health on Wednesday confirmed that there has been no detection of cases of the mutated strain of Covid-19 in the Kingdom.

Saudi Arabia suspended late on Sunday all international commercial flights for a renewable week except for the foreign flights already in the Kingdom which will be allowed to leave, state news agency SPA reported quoting an interior ministry source.

“The aim of suspension of travel was to bring down the possibility of people infected with this variant of coronavirus entering the Kingdom,” the spokesman of the ministry said, while stressing at the same time that coronavirus infections have been brought under control in the Kingdom.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday to brief on the developments related to the mutated strain of coronavirus, the ministry spokesman said that the proactive and preventive measures would contribute to the safety of society. As reported by Saudi Gazette, he said such measures would achieve more gains to contain the pandemic, noting that the vaccine distribution plan is ongoing and has not undergone any changes.

The ministry pointed out that thousands of coronavirus variants were recorded around the world and that did not have a clear impact on the speed or ferocity of the virus spreading. “The mutation strain recorded in Britain does not cause an increase in the death rate,” the spokesman said.

Regarding the possibility of imposing more precautionary measures and re-imposing curfews due to the outbreak of the coronavirus variant, the ministry affirmed that all the measures that have been taken are proactive to allow room for evaluation, noting that the ministry is working on reviewing and analysing studies, and evaluating final procedures appropriate to the situation.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Embassy in London urged all Saudi citizens who are currently in Britain to follow strictly the precautionary measures issued by the British government, and to obtain information from official sources until the suspension decision is lifted and permission is granted to reschedule their trips.