I just came back from a three-week trip to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. My hometown in Saudi just got quarantined (though commercial trucks are still allowed in to supply food and stuff) and the weekend before, the usual hordes of Saudis that spend their weekends in Bahrain were to scared to travel there. So Bahrain was like a ghost town during my last few days there. And now schools and unis are off in Saudi and Bahrain. Half the people outside, I've noticed, were wearing masks. At BAH, RUH and DMM, I noticed a lot of people working at the airport were wearing them, and half the travelers (of varying nationalities and ethnicities) were, too.
The land borders linking Saudi to the UAE and Kuwait were also shut down, so you can only fly to them and Bahrain. Ticket prices between DMM and BAH skyrocketed given it's the only way to travel there now.
Also, Saudi halted the issuance of tourists visas to passport holders from China, Japan and South Korea.
I flew BAH-RUH-FRA-IAD, and the flight between BAH and FRA was about only a third full, and the UA flight from FRA to IAD was three-quarters full. When I was leaving BAH, they asked about my final destination when they saw my Saudi passport. The reason they asked was because Saudis traveling to Iran illegally were the ones who brought the coronavirus initially to both countries. In FRA, as part of UA's document check, they asked if I'd been to Iran or China within the last two weeks. The officer picking up GE slips also asked me the same thing at IAD.
Friends who traveled from Egypt had their temperatures checked as they got back into Saudi.
Last edited by Nayef; Mar 9, 2020 at 8:18 am
Reason: added more info