Worshippers allowed back into 90,000 Saudi mosques

MOSQUES across Saudi Arabia have reopened for the first time in more than two months.

Worshippers in the kingdom, which has recorded 83,000 Covid-19 cases and 480 deaths, received texts telling them to keep two metres apart, wear face masks and abstain from handshakes or hugs.

The government prepared for the reopening of around 90,000 mosques by sanitising prayer rugs, washrooms and shelves holding copies of the Koran.

Meanwhile, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest site for Muslims after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, also reopened for prayers yesterday for the first time since March. Worshippers had their temperature checked before they were allowed in.

Israel has recorded fewer than 300 deaths and has kept its daily infection count to dozens rather than hundreds or thousands since May.