Shafaq News/ Saudi Arabia will ban travellers from 12 countries until March 31 as a measure to keep out a new variant of the coronavirus, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

The regulation will be in effect from Jan 8 to March. 31 and covers citizens arriving from the “flagged countries” and leaving to, a source in the ministry claimed.

The countries are Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Belarus, and any other countries in which the pandemic has not yet been controlled."

Saudi Arabia ranks in 37th place worldwide with 364,271 cases and 6304 deaths.