Dear KAUST Community,

There are no confirmed COVID-19 cases on campus and we are working hard for that to continue to be the case.

In the ongoing effort to keep you informed about decisions that affect you, we felt a timely communication about international travel was necessary.

The Saudi Ministry of Interior has decided to suspend all international flights, starting tomorrow, Sunday, March 15 at 11 a.m. You can read a more detailed statement on the Saudi Press Agency website.

The suspension of flights is slated to last for a period of two weeks. The Saudi government is arranging for the return of citizens abroad, but has halted all other traffic in line with the WHO announcement of COVID-19 as a pandemic.

KAUST has adopted a remote working policy in line with the overall direction to relax working conditions and ensure business continuity. If employees are unable to return because of this suspension of airline travel, and they were not given approval to work remotely, then we will consider their absence as an authorized absence with pay which is inline with the exceptional official holiday that was announced by the government until the period of the exceptional holiday is declared over.

For more information, contact hrhelpdesk@kaust.edu.sa or call (+966) 54 470 0277

The Coronavirus Taskforce will continue to monitor this situation closely and will advise on policy changes that affect you as they happen.

Thank you for your continued efforts to keep our community safe.