Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia on Tuesday warned against travel to banned destinations amid the pandemic.

The Interior Ministry said citizens who went to countries on the Kingdom’s ban list would be barred from traveling for three years, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Saudis have been barred from traveling to Indonesia over coronavirus concerns. Those currently in the Asian nation have been told to exercise caution and stay away from areas with high infection rates.

Authorities have also banned travel, without prior permission, to and from the UAE, Ethiopia, and Vietnam over concerns about the spread of more infectious variants.

The Kingdom confirmed 10 new COVID-19 related deaths on Tuesday, raising the total number of fatalities to 8,189.

The Ministry of Health confirmed 1,379 new cases reported in the Kingdom in the previous 24 hours, meaning 520,774 people have now contracted the disease. 

Of the total number of cases, 11,136 remain active and 1,419 in critical condition.

According to the ministry, the highest number of cases were recorded in the capital Riyadh with 273, followed by Makkah with 242, the Eastern Province with 224, Asir recorded 154, and Jazan confirmed 117 cases.

The health ministry also announced that 1,021 patients had recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number of recoveries in the Kingdom to 501,449.

The ministry renewed its call on the public to register to receive the vaccine, and adhere to the measures and abide by instructions.

Saudi Arabia has so far conducted more than 24.57 million PCR tests, with 109,194 carried out in the past 24 hours.

Testing hubs and treatment centers set up throughout the country have dealt with hundreds of thousands of people since the pandemic outbreak.

Taakad centers provide COVID-19 testing for those who show no or only mild symptoms or believe they have come into contact with an infected individual. 

Tetamman clinics offer treatment and advice to those with virus symptoms such as fever, loss of taste and smell, and breathing difficulties.

Appointments for both services can be made via the ministry’s Sehhaty app.

There are 25,317,550 people in the country who have been vaccinated so far, including 1,443,866 who are elderly.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs reopened three mosques in two regions after temporarily evacuating and sterilizing them after three people tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of mosques closed and reopened after being sterilized to 1,901 within 171 days.

The coronavirus pandemic has affected over 195 million people globally and the death toll has reached around 4.18 million.