RIYADH - The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) announced in a statement on Thursday the suspension of all flights to and from Nigeria. The decision is attributed to the reported cases of mutated Omicron variant in the African country. Nigeria, which has six confirmed cases of Omicron virus, has become the 15th country from where the Kingdom suspended flights after South Africa announced detection of the first case of new COVID-19 variant of Omicron. GACA issued instructions to all airlines operating in the Kingdom's airports regarding the travel ban on Nigeria, as it has updated the approved institutional quarantine procedures for the citizens who are coming to the Kingdom from the travel suspended countries. According to GACA's circular, all flights arriving directly or indirectly from Nigeria have been suspended, except for those who have spent a period of no less than 14 days in a third country after their departure from Nigeria and before entering the Kingdom. The authority noted that institutional quarantine procedures will be applied to non-Saudis coming from Nigeria, for a period of 5 days, In addition to carrying out a PCR test on the first and the fifth day of the quarantine, regardless of their immunization status. Meanwhile, Saudi citizens, who are coming from all countries on which the Kingdom has recently imposed travel ban due to the Omicron outbreak, are required to spend a five-day home quarantine, as well as to carry out a PCR test on the first and the fifth day of quarantine, regardless of their immunization status. It is noteworthy that Saudi Arabia had earlier suspended flights from South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Eswatini, Malawi, Zambia, Madagascar, Angola, Seychelles, Mauritius, and Comoros due to the recent outbreak of Omicron strain of coronavirus. It is required to adhere to all the adopted protocols and precautionary measures in the Kingdom, the authority said, while warning that all the legal measures will be taken against the violators and that they will be held accountable for any eventualities caused by the violation.
