Coronavirus: Saudi Arabia temporarily bans religious visits to protect pilgrims' safety

Ministry of Foreign Affairs stresses travel ban temporary as cases continue to spread throughout the Middle East

Pilgrims circumambulate around the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, ahead of the Hajj pilgrimage in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia on August 7, 2019. AP Photo

Pilgrims pray near the Kaaba as worshippers circumambulate around during Umrah in Mecca on Monday. AP Photo

Pilgrims circumambulate around the Kaaba during Umrah in Mecca. AP Photo

Pilgrims touch the Kaaba stone wall as others perform Tawaf inside the al-Haram al-Sharif mosque in Mecca on August 7, 2019. EPA

Workers clean as Muslim pilgrims circumambulate around the Kaaba in Mecca on Monday. AP Photo

Pilgrims pray near Maqam Ibrahim, or the Station of Abraham, the golden glass structure, center, at the Grand Mosque in Mecca. AP Photo

Pilgrims circumambulate around the Kaaba during Umrah in Mecca. AP Photo

Pilgrims circle around the Kaaba at the Masjidil Haram in Mecca on August 13, 2019. EPA

Saudi Arabia on Thursday introduced a temporary ban on religious visits to the country amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus in the region and the safety of pilgrims.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it would temporarily suspend entry to the kingdom for visits to religious sites including Makkah and Madinah as part of a range of precautionary measures, the Spa news agency reported.

Live updates as Middle East cases rise  

The country has also suspended entry for those with a tourist visa from countries with confirmed outbreaks of coronavirus.

A tour guide wears a mask, due to the coronavirus, in front of the historical Salwa Palace, in Diriyah, outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. AP

A woman wearing a face masks walks past Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon. Bloomberg

Visitors wearing protective face masks pose for a photograph after visiting Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon. Bloomberg

A Tehran Municipality worker cleans a bus to avoid the spread of the illness in Iran. AFP

Workers disinfect subway trains against coronavirus in Tehran, Iran, in the early morning AP

Members of an Iraqi family, all wearing masks, pose for a picture during their visit to the shrine of Imam Ali in the holy Iraqi central city of Najaf. AFP

An Iraqi man checks a protective mask at a pharmacy in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf. AFP

An Iraqi student shows an anti-government demonstrator how to wear a protective mask during a rally in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. AFP

An anti-government demonstrator adjusts a protective mask on a child's face in Basra, Iraq. AFP

Kuwaiti children use protective masks as they play with a water gun on the country's national day an day in the country's capital. EPA

Kuwaiti children use protective masks as they play with water balloons during celebrations of the country's national day in the country's capital. EPA

Police officers wearing protective face masks walk with horses on their way to visit residents who live in remote areas in Altay, China. AFP

Emergency forces install an air dome equipped with medical supplies at Spallanzani hospital in case the number of people suffering from coronavirus increases, Rome, Italy. EPA

Emergency forces install an air dome equipped with medical supplies at Spallanzani hospital in case the number of people suffering from coronavirus increases, in Rome, Italy. EPA

Pedestrians wearing protective face masks walk past shops in Milan, Italy. Bloomberg

Workers spray disinfectant as a precaution against covid-19 at Saemaeul traditional market in Seoul, South Korea. EPA

A worker wearing protective gear sprays disinfectant as part of preventative measures against the spread of covid-19 at a railway station in Daegu, South Korea. AFP

Pakistani soldiers wear facemasks patrol near the closed Pakistan-Iran border in Taftan as fears over the spread of covid-19 escalate. AFP

People wearing protective facemasks use their phones on the subway in Shanghai. AFP

The Foreign Ministry said the measures were put in place in line with recommendations made by international health authorities and to support global efforts to curb the outbreak.

Travel to and from the kingdom from GCC countries, using national identity cards, has also been suspended, but the ministry says Saudi citizens will be able to return home. GCC citizens will also be permitted to return to their countries using their own identity cards.

The ministry said the kingdom “renews its support for all international measures to limit the spread of this virus, and urges its citizens to exercise caution before travelling to countries experiencing coronavirus outbreaks".

“Saudi Arabia stresses that these measures are temporary and subject to continuous evaluation by the relevant authorities,” it said.

The announcement came amid an increasing number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the Middle East.

The World Health Organisation on Wednesday said that, for the first time since the global epidemic began, a greater number of new cases of the virus were now being recorded outside China than within it.

Saudi Arabia joins a number of countries in the region imposing travel bans to help fight the spread of the virus, which has now infected more than 80,000 worldwide.

Travel to and from Saudi Arabia from GCC countries, using national identity cards, has also been suspended. EPA

Iraq on Wednesday banned all public gatherings and barred travellers from Kuwait and Bahrain from entry, bringing the total number of countries on its entry ban list to nine.

Most of the coronavirus cases in the region have been traced back to Iran, which is experiencing the second deadliest outbreak of the virus after China.