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Saudi Arabia bars foreign pilgrims from hajj over coronavirus fears Global report: Covid-19 restricts hajj and Germany locks down district
(about 8 hours later)
Annual pilgrimage to Islamic holy sites of Mecca and Medina usually attracts 2.5m visitors Pilgrimage to Islamic holy sites usually attracts 2.5m visitors; about 360,000 Germans face new restrictions
Muslims from around the world will be barred from taking part in this year’s hajj, the annual pilgrimage to the Islamic holy sites of Mecca and Medina, which usually attracts about 2.5 million visitors. Saudi Arabia has said only Muslims living in the country can take part in this year’s hajj pilgrimage, while Germany has locked down an entire district, as several countries around the world responded to fresh outbreaks of Covid-19.
Saudi Arabia has said only a limited number of people who are resident in the kingdom will be permitted to take part in the hajj in an effort to contain the spread of Covid-19. Saudi’s hajj minister, Muhammad Benten, told a virtual press conference that the annual pilgrimage to the Islamic holy sites of Mecca and Medina, which usually draws 2.5 million visitors, would be limited to a few thousand residents.
The country has recorded 161,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 1,300 deaths. A three-month nationwide 24-hour curfew was lifted at the weekend, with all economic and commercial activities allowed to resume, but international travel is still prohibited. The number “may be in the thousands”, Benten said. “We are in the process of reviewing, so it could be 1,000 or less, or a little more.” Over-65s will not be permitted and all pilgrims, and those serving them, will be quarantined before and after.
There had been widespread speculation this year’s pilgrimage would be cancelled, but state media announced on Monday that a small number of people living in Saudi Arabia will be allowed to visit Mecca and Medina when the hajj begins in late July. There had been speculation this year’s hajj would be cancelled altogether after the country recorded 161,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 1,300 deaths. A three-month 24-hour curfew has just been lifted, but international travel is still banned.
“The number, God willing, may be in the thousands. We are in the process of reviewing so it could be 1,000 or less, or a little more,” Saudi’s hajj minister, Muhammad Benten, said in a virtual press conference. Germany put an entire district into a local lockdown for the first time since easing its restrictions in early May, after 1,553 employees at the Tönnies meat processing plant in the western city of Gütersloh tested positive for the virus.
Over-65s will not be allowed to perform the hajj. All pilgrims, and those serving pilgrims, will be quarantined before and after the pilgrimage. About 360,000 people in the area will be affected by newly enforced physical distancing rules and closures of bars, museums and swimming pools. The state premier of North-Rhine Westphalia, Armin Laschet, said the second lockdown could be relaxed after 30 June “as soon as we have control over the infections”.
The Saudi authorities suspended the Umrah pilgrimage, which can be undertaken at any time of year, in late February. The Gütersloh outbreak caused Germany’s “R” number to shoot up to 2.76, but Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute disease control agency, said he viewed the rise as a blip rather than a sign of a second wave of infections.
The Hajj – a requirement for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime – potentially could be a source of infection as millions of pilgrims crowd into congested religious sites for five days. Overall, the number of new cases remained low, Wieler said, adding that Germans should nonetheless “continue to be watchful. The virus is still in our country, and if we give it a chance to spread, it will take it.”
This month Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, said its nationals would not be taking part in this year’s hajj because of the possible health risk. Malaysia, Senegal and Singapore followed suit. France’s much heralded phone app for tracking coronavirus cases, meanwhile, has proved a flop, with just 68 people informing the platform they had been infected and only 14 alerted that they were at risk because of their contacts with them.
“My hopes of going to [Mecca] were so high,” Kamariah Yahya, 68, from Indonesia, told Agence France-Presse. “I’ve been preparing for years. But what can I do? This is Allah’s will – it is destiny.” The digital affairs minister, Cédric O, admitted the number of downloads paled in comparison with Germany, where 10 million people downloaded the app compared with fewer than 2 million in France – 460,000 of whom subsequently uninstalled it.
Each country is allocated a quota of hajj visas according to its Muslim population, with Indonesia having the largest contingency at close to 221,000. French workers, however, will reportedly return to their places of work next week, with the employment minister, Muriel Pénicaud, reportedly set to announce this week that working from home will cease being the norm except for those at particular risk, or who live with someone at risk.
The Saudi decision is a blow to thousands of travel agents across the world that specialise in the hajj. It will also represent a significant loss of revenue for the kingdom. In Sweden, where the government adopted a light-touch approach to the virus without a strict mandatory lockdown, a new poll suggested public confidence in authorities’ ability to manage the crisis had fallen as the toll rose.
There have been deadly disasters in previous years, including a 2015 stampede that killed up to 2,300 worshippers and a crane collapse at the Grand Mosque the same year in which more than 100 people died. Sweden’s total of 5,122 Covid-19 deaths, while representing a lower per-million toll than Spain or Italy, for example, is many times higher than that of its Nordic neighbours, and many countries now opening up to tourism have barred Swedes from entry.
In 1979, religious extremists stormed the site housing the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca that Muslims pray toward and gather around during pilgrimage. Thousands of worshippers were trapped inside and hundreds were killed in a siege that lasted two weeks. An Ipsos poll published in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper showed that in June, 45% of respondents had “strong confidence” in authorities’ ability to handle the crisis, down from 56% in April. The proportion of those who had “little confidence” had risen from 21% to 29%.
About one in three of Saudi Arabia’s population of almost 35 million is a foreign national. The country was due to hold a census this year, the first since 2010. “The differences are big enough that we can say with certainty that there has been a real change. The view of authorities’ capabilities has taken a clear negative turn,” Nicklas Källebring, an analyst, told the newspaper.
Moscow’s 12.7 million inhabitants were able to visit restaurants, cafes, libraries, playgrounds and gyms again on Tuesday after the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said life in the Russian capital could largely return to normal, although residents have been urged to continue wearing masks and gloves and observing physical distancing rules.
Sobyanin’s critics have accused him of rushing to ease the lockdown in time for a Red Square military parade on Wednesday and a 1 July referendum that could potentially extend Vladimir Putin’s rule until 2036. The Victory Day parade celebrates the defeat of Nazi Germany and has grown to outsize proportions in the years since Putin came to power at the turn of the century.
Elsewhere, the virus continued to spread. Iran reported 121 new deaths on Tuesday, its highest daily toll in over two months, as it battled to contain the Middle East’s deadliest Covid-19 outbreak, which has seen a total of 9,863 deaths.
Iran has not imposed a mandatory lockdown, but closed schools, cancelled public events and banned movement between the country’s 31 provinces in March, measures the government has been progressively lifting to reopen its sanctions-hit economy.
New Zealand reported two new cases, both returning travellers who were diagnosed in quarantine facilities during routine testing. One flew to New Zealand from the US on 18 June, while the other arrived from India on 19 June, health officials said.
The government announced it was stepping up testing at the border for those who work there, with all incoming travellers to be tested on days three and 12 of their isolation. New Zealand now has 10 cases, all imported, after several days with no known active cases following the country’s stringent early lockdown.
In Brazil, a judge ordered Jair Bolsonaro to rectify his “at best disrespectful” behaviour and properly wear a face mask in Brasília, saying the president was not above the laws of the federal district, which contains Brazil’s capital, and would face a daily fine of 2,000 reais (about £330) if he continued to break the rules.
China, where the virus originated, reported 22 new infections on Tuesday, including 13 in Beijing. Authorities are restricting movement of people in the capital and stepping up other measures to prevent the virus from spreading after a series of local infections.