Saudi Arabia Allows Umrah as of October 4

Saudi Arabia will begin gradually allowing the Umrah pilgrimage as of October 4, the Saudi Interior Ministry was quoted by Al-Arabiya as saying on Tuesday.

Under the decision, the Umrah performers will gradually visit Masjid al-Haram and Rawdah along with implementing anti-coronavirus measures.

The decisions will be implemented in four phases; the first phase will witness the allowance of performing the Umrah rituals for the Saudis and residents starting from October with a capacity of 30% (6,000 Umrah performers per day).

In the second phase, Saudi citizens and foreign residents could perform Umrah and pray Masjid al-Haram and Rawdah with a capacity of 75% (40,000 Umrah performers per day) as of October 18.

The third stage will see the allowance of performing the Umrah rituals for the Saudis, residents, and travelers from abroad beginning from November 1 with a capacity of 100% (20,000 Umrah performers per day).

In this stage, Saudi Arabia will determine the countries whose citizens could come and perform Umrah according to the coronavirus situation in these countries.

In the fourth phase, all the Umrah performers from the Kingdom and abroad will be allowed to perform the rituals freely with a capacity of 100%.