Saudi Arabia on Monday declared a series of actions to aid avert the spread of the novel coronavirus during the yearly Haj pilgrimage scheduled to take position afterwards this month.

The Kingdom will restrict the quantity of domestic attendees to close to 1,000 and touching the , Islam’s most sacred monument, will be banned, reviews the BBC.

Social distancing will also be imposed.

In standard times the pilgrimage is a single of the most important times in the Muslim spiritual calendar.

Some two million folks were being envisioned to journey to Mecca and Medina this July and August for the annual collecting.

But only Saudi citizens will be allowed to show up at this 12 months.

Coronavirus in Saudi Arabia

Monday’s development arrived as Saudi Arabia reported a whole of 209,509 COVID-19 instances, though the demise toll stands at 1,916.

Final month, Saudi Arabia had announced that thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, only a “really restricted quantity” of people today will be permitted to acquire section in this year’s Haj pilgrimage.

So whilst this year’s Haj will include things like non-Saudis, people individuals have to by now reside within the borders of the Kingdom to be qualified.

This is not the initially time Saudi Arabia has limited participation in the pilgrimage.

Involving 2014 and 2016, Muslim devoted from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and various other African countries ended up excluded from the Haj owing to Ebola.

The Haj signifies an important source of profits, commonly building among $5.3 billion and $6.9 billion for the regional overall economy, in accordance to Mecca’s chamber of commerce.

In 2019, practically 2.5 million Muslims executed the Haj, which include more than 600,000 Saudis, according to formal figures.

The yearly pilgrimage is one particular of the 5 pillars of Islam, which just about every Muslim need to conduct at least when if his or her physical and financial point out makes it possible for.