Saudi resumes Umrah; India goes for 500m vaccine doses
UAE reports 1,041 new cases, 1,001 recoveries; Dubai fines 8 establishments; Trump’s condition improving, receives steroid in COVID-19 treatment, say doctors.
Mask-clad pilgrims circled Islam’s holiest site along socially distanced paths on Sunday, as Saudi authorities partially resumed the yearround Umrah pilgrimage with extensive health precautions adopted ater a seven-month coronavirus hiatus.
Thousands of worshippers entered the Grand Mosque in the Holy City of Makkah in batches to perform the ritual of circling the sacred Kaaba.
It is being revived in three phases, with Saudi Hajj Minister Mohammad Benten saying last week that 6,000 pilgrims per day would be allowed in the first stage to perform the Umrah “meticulously and within a specified period of time.”
Under the second stage from Oct.18, the number of Umrah pilgrims will be increased to 15,000 per day.
Visitors from abroad will be permited in the third stage from Nov.1, when capacity will be raised to 20,000.
A maximum of 40,000 people, including other worshippers, will be allowed to perform prayers at the mosque in the second stage and 60,000 in the third, according to the interior ministry.
A rat of precautions have been adopted to ward off any outbreaks, according to state media.
The revered Black Stone in the eastern corner of the Kaaba — which it is customary but not mandatory to touch during the pilgrimage — will be out of reach, and the Grand Mosque is to be sterilised before and ater each group of worshippers.
Each group of 20 or 25 pilgrims are to be accompanied by a health worker and medical teams will be on the ground in case of an emergency, Benten said.
Thermal sensors have been installed to measure the body temperature of the pilgrims, Makkah authorities said.
The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP), announced that it conducted 108,906 additional COVID-19 tests which helped uncover 1,041 new coronavirus cases.
MOHAP also noted an additional 1,001 individuals had fully recovered from COVID-19
The Ministry added that no Covid-19-related deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours.
Dubai Economy has imposed fines on eight commercial establishments - seven of them for employees’ lack of commitment to wearing masks and one for breaching physical distancing guidelines.
The violations were spoted in establishments across various shopping centres, markets and a consumer complex in the Umm Ramool, Al Muraqqabat, and Ayal Nasir areas, and their activities included retail, general trade, and electronics trade. CCCP also fined a fitness centre in cooperation with the Dubai Sports Council.
The field inspection teams also warned 13 other commercial establishments for not placing the physical distancing stickers as required.
US President Donald Trump’s condition is improving as he is being treated for COVID-19 at a military hospital, his medical team said on Sunday, as they provided more details of the toll the lung illness has taken on him.
Trump, 74, who was flown to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday, could return as early as Monday to the White House, where doctors would continue his five-day course of the intravenous antiviral drug Remdesivir.
Dr Sean P. Conley told reporters Trump had received supplemental oxygen on Thursday and Friday and is also being given the steroid dexamethasone. The briefing came the day ater contradictory messages from the White House caused widespread confusion about the president’s condition.
India has registered 75,829 confirmed coronaviruses cases in the past 24 hours, a day ater crossing 100,000 total fatalities.
The Health Ministry raised India’s confirmed total to more than 6.5 million on Sunday and said at least 101,782 people have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
India’s Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday that the Centre is working on plans to procure 400-500 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, which will be administered to up to 25 crore people by July 2021.
“Government plans to receive and utilise 400-500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses. Our target is to cover 20-25 crore people by July 2021. For that, we are building capacities in HR, training, supervision, etc, on a massive scale,” he said at his weekly webinar ‘Sunday Samvaad’ for his social media followers.