Umrah pilgrimage for Saudis suspended over virus fears
The kingdom said the suspension was provisional, but with the Umrah attracting millions of people annually, the decision has a huge impact
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday suspended the yearround “Umrah” pilgrimage over fears of the new coronavirus spreading to Islam’s holiest cities, an unprecedented move that raises fresh uncertainty over the annual Hajj.
The kingdom said the suspension was provisional, but with the Umrah attracting millions of people annually, the decision has a huge potential impact.
The Gulf state has decided “to suspend Umrah temporarily for citizens and residents in the kingdom ”, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
They were also barred from “visits to the Prophet’s mosque in Medina”, according to a foreign ministry tweet.
The move comes after authorities, alarmed over the spread of coronavirus across the Middle East, last week suspended visas for the Umrah and barred citizens from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council from entering Makkah and Medina.
Saudi Arabia on Monday confirmed its first case of new coronavirus after one its citizens who had returned from COVID-19 hotspot Iran tested positive.
The Umrah, which refers to the Islamic pilgrimage to Makkah that can be undertaken at any time of year, attracts millions of Muslims from across the globe each year.
The decision to suspend the um rah comes ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadan starting in late April, which is considered a favourable period for pilgrims to perform it.
The holy sites, which draw millions of pilgrims every year, are a key revenue earner for Saudi Arabic.
Around two-thirds of the 18.3 million Umrah participants in 2018 were citizens and residents of the kingdom, according to government statistics.
It is unclear how the coronavirus will affect the hajj, due to start in late July.
Some 2.5 million faithful travelled to Saudi Arabia from across the world in 2019 to take part in hajj, which is one of the five pillars of Islam.
The event is a massive logistical challenge for Saudi authorities, with colossal crowds cramming into the holy sites, making it vulnerable to contagion.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform plan seeks to decouple the kingdom’ s economy—the world’ s top crude exporter — from oil dependency towards other sources of revenue, including religious tourism.
The government had hoped to welcome 30 million pilgrims to the kingdom annually by 2030.
Coronavirus now appears to be spreading much more rapidly outside China than within but can still be contained, and stigma is more dangerous than the disease itself, the World Health Organization said on Monday. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said almost nine times as many cases had been reported in China as outside in the previous 24 hours, adding that the risk of coronavirus spreading was now very high at a “global level”.
He said outbreaks in South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan were the greatest concern, but that there was evidence that close surveillance was working in South Korea, the worst affected country outside China, and the epidemic could be contained there.
“Stigma, to be honest, is more dangerous than the virus itself. Let’s really underline that. Stigma is the most dangerous enemy,” he told a news briefing in Geneva.
He said the fight against the coronavirus should become a bridge for peace, commending the united States for supporting sending medical aid to Iran despite the tensions between them.
“I think we have a common enemy now,” he said. Energy-rich Gulf states have scrapped or postponed dozens of events as part of measures to contain the new coronavirus, denting economies already hurt by slumping oil prices.
From OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia to the region’s most diversified economy the United Arab Emirates, sports tournaments, economic conferences and major religious events have been sacrificed in attempts to curb the spread of the disease.
More than 150 coronavirus cases have been detected in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, mostly among people returning from pilgrimages to Iran.
The Gulf region is already struggling to cope with decreasing oil revenues as the public health crisis paralyses economic giant China -- the world’s biggest oil importer and buyer of Gulf oil.
Now Riyadh has suspended the “Umrah”, the minor Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that draws millions, while other Gulf nations have restricted entry to foreigners.