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Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Saudi Arabia Allows Prayers at Mecca's Grand Mosque


Sun 18 Oct 2020 | 12:36 PM
Yara Sameh

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia allowed on Sunday its citizens and residents to pray in the Grand Mosque in Mecca, for the first time after a seven-month suspension over the coronavirus.

The kingdom's state TV AlEkhbariya reported that a group of worshipers prayed the Fajr (the dawn prayer) in front of the Holy Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site, as Jama’a (group prayer).

The prayers suspension came as part of Saudi Arabia's government efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Saudi Arabia had suspended in March all Friday prayers and daily prayers in mosques across the Kingdom as a coronavirus precaution as well as held a limited season of Hajj pilgrimage and began allowing Umrah pilgrimage in stages on October 4.

As of Saturday, the kingdom’s coronavirus tally stood at 341,854 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 5,165 deaths, and 328,165 recovered patients.

https://twitter.com/alekhbariyatv/status/1317653407881199617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1317653407881199617%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3%2Ccontainerclick_0&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fenglish.alarabiya.net%2Fen%2Fcoronavirus%2F2020%2F10%2F18%2FCoronavirus-Saudi-Arabia-allows-citizens-residents-to-pray-in-Grand-Mosque-in-Mecca

 

It is worth mentioning that the novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, and has infected more than one million people and killed over 234,139 worldwide.

In December 2019, an outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China. On 31 December 2019, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of coronavirus, which was given the interim name 2019-nCoV, which was later renamed SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.

On March 11, WHO declared coronavirus a global pandemic as the new virus has rapidly spread to more than 800,000 people from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.

Transmission of viruses between humans happens when someone comes into contact with an infected person’s secretions, such as droplets in a cough.

Coronavirus can also be transmitted by coming into contact with something an infected person has touched and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes.

It is known that older people appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of the emerging virus.

The virus caused complete paralysis in all activities and events with large gatherings worldwide due to concerns over the spread of the virus.

People across the globe partake in self-isolation for 14 days as an effective precautionary measure to protect those around them and themselves from contracting COVID-19.