Saudi Arabia suspends Umrah as coronavirus shifts focus to outside China

Author: Agencies

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday extended a ban on Umrah pilgrims and other visitors until March 31 in the wake of coronavirus outbreak.

“Saudi Arabia has temporarily suspended Umrah for residents of the country as a precautionary measure to stop the spread of coronavirus,” Saudi Gazette tweeted. Under the temporary ban Saudi nationals and residents living in the kingdom wanting to perform Umrah will also not be allowed into the holiest sites.

The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced that it is working to help foreign pilgrims still in the kingdom return to their countries, Arab News reported on Wednesday. However, people who possess Saudi Arabia’s residence permits and business visas can still travel to the kingdom.

As coronavirus shifted focus to outside China, Tajikistan’s national council of clerics has told mosques to suspend public gatherings, including Friday prayers but excluding burial rites, to protect against the coronavirus, even though the country has not reported any cases.

The Muslim-majority nation of 9 million people bordering China and Afghanistan has shut its border to citizens from both neighbours as well as South Korea, Iran and Italy. Authorities also said they are cancelling traditional public festivities related to the Nowruz holiday, or Persian New Year celebrated from March 21-25.

Italy is closing all schools and universities from Thursday until mid-March to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, AFP quoted Ansa and other Italian news agencies as reporting. The measure was one of several considered by the government at a meeting on Wednesday to combat COVID-19, which has killed 79 people in Italy and infected more than 2,500, the most in Europe.

Germany’s interior ministry said it has banned exports of medical protection gear such as masks and gloves to ensure health workers in the country have enough to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. The ministry said in a statement that it had published an order outlawing “the export abroad of medical protective gear (masks, gloves, protective suits, etc)”. Exceptions can be made in some cases, for instance as part of ‘international aid missions’, the statement added.

On Wednesday, Iraq confirmed the first death from the novel coronavirus in the country where a total of 31 cases have been reported. The deceased 70-year-old religious preacher had been quarantined in the northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah before he died, said a spokesman for the provincial health authority in the region.