The official source urged all Saudi citizens, who are currently in Iran, to immediately report their visit to Iran on their arrival.

Saudi Arabia denounced Iran for granting Saudi citizens entry amid the coronavirus outbreak and urged it to reveal the identities of all Saudi nationals who had visited since the start of February, a government statement said on Thursday. (Coronavirus outbreak: All the latest updates)

The statement urged Saudi citizens who are currently in Iran or have returned recently to report their travel, promising if they did so in 48 hours they would not be subjected to a law forbidding travel to Iran.

"This behaviour poses a serious public health threat to the international community and undermines international efforts to combat Covid-19, putting many communities around the world at risk," the statement said.

The source was following up on the Ministry of Health's earlier statements that stressed the five confirmed Saudi cases for Covid-19 were recorded following their return to Kingdom through Bahrain and Kuwait without disclosing to the relevant Saudi authorities the fact that they had travelled to Iran.



The official source urged all Saudi citizens who had visited and returned from Iran during the past weeks to immediately report this matter and to contact MoH via the toll-free number (937) in order for them to be guided through the necessary safety measures.

The official also urged citizens, who are currently in Iran, to immediately report their visit to Iran on their arrival to the Kingdom ports.

Saudi Arabia has reported five cases so far. Four of them were citizens who had recently visited Iran via Bahrain or Kuwait but did not disclose their travel details. The fifth is the wife of one of them.

(Coronavirus: Everything you need to know about the Covid-19 Wuhan virus outbreak)

Iran, which has emerged as an epicenter for the disease in the Middle East, has reported 107 deaths from the virus, putting it on a par with Italy as the country with the highest death toll outside China where the virus emerged two months ago.

In a bid to head off a major outbreak in Saudi Arabia, authorities have barred entry by foreign pilgrims and traditional tourists from some 25 countries and said that citizens and residents of Gulf Cooperation Council countries wishing to enter must wait 14 days after returning from outside the region.

With inputs from Reuters