Limited Umrah pilgrimage resumes after coronavirus hiatus
Saudi authorities have partially resumed the year-round Umrah pilgrimage after a seven-month hiatus over the coronavirus pandemic, allowing a limited number of people to perform the rituals in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina with strict observance of health protocols.
The kingdom allowed citizens and residents to start performing Umrah as of October 4 at 30 percent capacity, or 6,000 pilgrims a day, and said the pilgrimage for Muslims from abroad would start on November 1.
The Saudi worshipers and pilgrims were seen on Sunday circling Islam's holiest site — the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque in Mecca — and visiting the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, with health precautions in place, including masks and social distancing.
Last week, the Saudi Hajj minister announced that the Umrah would be revived in three phases and the number could increase from 6,000 per day in the first stage to 60,000 in the last.
The minister underlined that in all the said phases each group of 20 or 25 pilgrims would be accompanied by a health worker, and medical teams would be on the ground in case of an emergency.
The Umrah, the pilgrimage that can be undertaken at any time, usually attracts millions of Muslim pilgrims and worshipers from across the world each year but it was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Last year, Saudi Arabia hosted some 19 million Umrah pilgrims from countries around the globe.
The Saudi interior ministry said on Sunday that the decision to resume the pilgrimage was in response to the "aspirations of Muslims home and abroad" to perform the ritual and visit the holy sites.
“The Umrah would be allowed to return to full capacity once the threat of the pandemic has abated,” the ministry added, stressing that until then, the health ministry would fully monitor countries from which pilgrims are allowed to enter.
Umrah, a lesser pilgrimage compared to the annual Hajj, involves a visit to Saudi Arabia where Islam's holiest site Kaaba is located. Some 2.5 million Muslims come to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina each year to make the Hajj pilgrimage.
The Hajj went ahead in late July, on the smallest scale in modern history, with only up to 10,000 Muslims allowed to take part.
The coronavirus, which emerged in central China in late December last year, has so far infected over 35 million people and claimed more than one million lives worldwide.
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