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Saudi citizens planning to travel abroad from next month must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said on Monday.
The new rule takes effect on August 9.
The decision was made based on new waves of infection globally, new mutations, and the "low efficacy of one vaccination dose against these mutations", the ministry said.
Children under the age of 12 will be exempt from the new rules, provided that their travel insurance covers coronavirus-related costs and is pre-approved by the Saudi Central Bank, the ministry said in a statement released on the Saudi Press Agency.
Those who caught the virus in the past six months and have received their first dose of vaccine are exempt.
The kingdom has approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-Oxford, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna vaccines, with more than 20 million doses administered so far.
The ministry has started to administer the second dose of approved vaccines to all age groups across the country.
Saudi Arabia welcomes Hajj pilgrims - in pictures
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Ministry of Hajj and Umrah officials sanitise floors at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, in preparation for the arrival of pilgrims. -
A man wearing ihram, the white robe of a pilgrim, waits for his luggage at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. -
A pilgrim waits for his luggage at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. Before the pandemic, the Hajj drew 2. 5 million pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. -
Officials make last-minute arrangements in the Mina area before the Hajj in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. -
A general view of the tent city in Mina before the start of Hajj in Makkah. -
A Saudi policeman checks vehicles at at an entrance gate in Makkah. For a second straight year Hajj has been curtailed because of the coronavirus, with only vaccinated people in Saudi Arabia able to perform. -
A pilgrim cleans outside his tent in the Mina area of Makkah. -
A Saudi woman at the National Centre for Security Operations for Hajj. -
Workers at the National Centre for Security Operations for Hajj gear up for the annual pilgrimage.
