JEDDAH: Some 1,639 repatriated Saudi nationals have so far been tested for coronavirus and placed in mandatory isolation, Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Aly said on Saturday.
Saudi embassies in cooperation with authorities have begun arrangements to bring back stranded nationals, complying with the directives of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to facilitate procedures for the return of citizens.
On Saturday 219 Saudis arrived from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, landing at King Fahd International Airport in Dammam.
Passengers will undergo 12 different preventive check-ups for COVID-19 in three stages — before boarding the plane, inside the cabin and then finally upon arrival.
The Ministry of Health has allocated a checkpoint through which incoming passengers pass mandatory thermal cameras to ensure passenger safety upon arrival. Suspicious cases are isolated from other arrivals and transferred safely to a designated area further away.
A worker at the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh sanitizes the luggage of Saudis repatriated from the US early Sunday. (SPA)
Passengers are also required to sanitize their hands before starting procedures at the passport and customs control area, where a distance of 1.5 meters must be maintained between the passenger and passport officer.
They are then escorted to their designated guesthouses. The Ministry of Tourism has allocated over 11,000 rooms so far across the Kingdom to accommodate the number of repatriations for the 14-day isolation period, which is supervised by the Ministry of Health.
Buses transporting the arriving passengers have been provided by the Ministry of Education and are equipped with safety measures and services.
The first flight evacuating Saudi citizens came from Jakarta. It arrived at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with 250 Saudi passengers aboard. The first repatriation was by bus, transporting a group of nearly 200 Saudis from Bahrain via the King Fahd Causeway connecting the two nations.
Requests to return home can be filled through a dedicated platform on the Saudi Foreign Ministry's website http://www.mofa.gov.sa/es.
Three Saudi airports, King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, have been prepared to receive passengers from Jakarta, Washington, Kuala Lumpur, Mauritius, Muscat, London, Manila, Maldives, Colombo and New York as part of the first phase of repatriation.
