Saudi Arabia halts travel to Mecca, Medina over coronavirus
SAUDI ARABIA-Saudi Arabia on Thursday halted travel to the holiest sites in Islam over coronavirus fears just months ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, as the Middle East recorded more than 220 confirmed cases.
The extraordinary decision by Saudi Arabia prevents foreigners from reaching the holy city of Mecca and the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims pray towards five times a day. It also said travel was suspended to Prophet Muhammad’s mosque in Medina.
The decision indicated the level of concern about the outbreak potentially spreading into Saudi Arabia, whose oilrich monarchy stakes its legitimacy on protecting Islam’s holy sites. The epicentre in the Middle East’s most-affected country, Iran, appears to be in the holy Shia city of Qom, where a shrine there sees the faithful reach out to kiss and touch it in reverence.
“Saudi Arabia renews its support for all international measures to limit the spread of this virus and urges its citizens to exercise caution before travelling to countries experiencing coronavirus outbreaks,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement announcing the decision. “We ask God Almighty to spare all humanity from all harm.”
Indonesia’s foreign minister on Thursday urged Saudi Arabia to allow its citizens to continue their Umrah pilgrimage. Indonesia is the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country and it often sends about one million people on the pilgrimage every year to the kingdom. “The immediacy of this will impact our citizens because at the time of the announcement, there are Indonesian citizens or maybe citizens of other countries who have flown there,” Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters.
Disease outbreaks have always been a concern surrounding the Hajj, required of all ablebodied Muslims once in their life, especially as pilgrims come from all over the world. The earliest recorded outbreak came in 632 as pilgrims fought off malaria. A cholera outbreak in 1821 killed an estimated 20,000 pilgrims. Another cholera outbreak in 1865 killed 15,000 pilgrims and then spread worldwide. More recently, Saudi Arabia faced danger from a related coronavirus that caused Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS. (Al Jazeera)