Saudi Arabia suspends Umrah pilgrimage amid coronavirus concerns

Saudi Arabia has temporarily suspended Umrah pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina for Saudi citizens as part of the measures to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus in the country, an official source in the Saudi Interior Ministry told state news agency SPA.

The report further said that the decision will be assessed regularly and reversed when the situation changes.

The move comes a day after Saudi Arabia reported its first case of coronavirus, involving a person who had arrived in the country from Iran through Bahrain. The Kingdom had been free of the deadly virus for more than three months.

Almost all those who had been infected in the Middle East have had either a travel history to Iran, or had been in contact with someone who had been there.

Iran has been one of the worst-affected countries from coronavirus, having reported the most fatalities from the infection outside of China.

The virus first originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has since then spread to more than 60 countries across the world, including India.