Saudi Arabia suspends travel to and from India, two other countries as COVID-19 cases surge

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday temporarily suspended flights to and from India as part of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus as the number of cases in the region continued to rise.

Apart from India, the banned countries include Brazil and Argentina too, which has been seeing a sharp spur in the daily coronavirus cases.

According to the country's Civil Aviation Authority, people with travel history to any of the mentioned countries 14 days prior to their arrival to the Kingdom, have also been barred.

"Suspending travel to and from the following countries (India, Brazil, and Argentina) including any person who has been in any of the mentioned countries in the last (14) days prior to their arrival to the Kingdom," General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a statement.

However, those who have official government invitations are excluded. According to the Johns Hopkins University, there are 330,798 COVID-19 cases in the country.

(With inputs from agencies)