Riyadh: Nearly 18,680 Saudi citizens have traveled abroad via land crossings and airports within 36 hours and 10,450 traveled within the first 24 hours after the Kingdom eased travel restrictions on May 17, the country’s Ministry of Interior (MOI) announced on Wednesday.
The MOI stated that the top five destinations for citizens traveling abroad by air were the United Arab Emirates followed by Egypt, Qatar, United States, and the United Kingdom.
As per media reports, 5,717 citizens left for neighboring countries via land border crossings.
A total of 3,362 passengers used King Fahd causeways to travel to Bahrain, while 689 departed for the UAE via the Border crossing. Most of the 673 Saudis passed through Al Haditha checkpoint to reach Jordan, while 324 left for Qatar crossing the Salwa checkpoint and 270 left for Kuwait using the Khafji border crossing.
The Kingdom officially lifted its travel ban on citizens traveling abroad and opened its land, sea, and air borders on May 17.
In Saudi Arabia, those who have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine or those who passed 14 days after taking the first dose of the vaccine are permitted to travel.
The ministry urged citizens to exercise extreme caution when traveling to high-risk countries, where the disease is spreading at a high rate.
Last week, Saudi Arabia warned citizens against traveling to 13 countries without permission due to security concerns and instability in several countries, while the COVID-19 pandemic continued and new strains of the virus spread to some other countries.