Coronavirus pandemic: Umra and visit visa for KSA suspended

RIYADH/TEHRAN/BEIJING: ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia on Thursday placed an immediate ban on Umrah pilgrims travelling from the countries where coronavirus cases have been confirmed, including Pakistan, Geo News reported.

According to airport sources, the ban has also been placed on those travelling to the Kingdom on a visit visa. The move from the Saudi government follows the confirmation of two coronavirus cases in Pakistan on Wednesday evening.

All airlines have been directed to inform their passengers to wait for further orders. The government is "suspending entry to the Kingdom for the purpose of Umrah and visiting Masjid-e-Nabvi temporarily," the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement.

Umrah attracts tens of thousands of Muslims from all over the globe each month. The foreign ministry said it was also suspending visas for tourists visiting from countries where the new virus is a "danger".

Data from the Saudi Haj and Umrah Ministry shows that as of last December, Indonesia contributed the second-highest number of Umrah pilgrims with 443,879 arrivals, just below Pakistan with 495,270. The country welcomes nearly 7 million Umrah pilgrims every year, most of whom arrive at airports in Jeddah and Madina.

In addition to the temporary Umrah ban, the Saudi government will also impose a similar ban on tourist-visa holders from “countries judged to pose a particularly high risk of spreading the virus”.

A statement from the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) said that Pakistanis who had permission and permanent residence of Saudi Arabia could travel to the country. However, those who wish to travel for Umrah and/or on tourist visas will not be allowed to go to Saudi Arabia "with immediate effect", said the PIA.

The PIA made it clear that the national flag carrier will continue flight operations to Saudi Arabia until pilgrims haven’t returned to the country.

Meanwhile, Iran said Thursday its death toll from coronavirus had risen to 26, the highest number of fatalities from the virus outside China, and the total number of infected people now stood at 245, including several senior officials.

The outbreak prompted authorities to call off Friday prayer congregations in several cities including Tehran, state TV later reported, while state news agency IRNA said Iran has banned Chinese citizens from entering the country. Iran and Iraq have also banned the entry of foreign pilgrims.

Those infected include Masoumeh Ebtekar, the vice president for women and family affairs, and the country's deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi. Ebtekar's case was said to be mild and she has not been hospitalised.

“In the last 24 hours, we have had 106 (new) confirmed cases ... The death toll has reached 26,” Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state TV, calling on Iranians to avoid “unnecessary trips inside the country”.

Jahanpur said there were plans to impose some restrictions at holy sites and cancel some sermons on Friday.

“But it needs the approval of the president before being carried out,” he said, adding that hundreds of those suspected of being infected by the virus had recovered and been discharged from hospital.

On Thursday, the Pakistani authorities were scrambling to screen hundreds of people who had recently arrived from Iran. Officials in Karachi said they are also working to ensure a supply of face masks, as prices shot up with concern growing over Pakistan´s ability to handle an outbreak.

The government has now collected the data for 1,500 people in Sindh who have arrived in Pakistan from Iran recently, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah told a press conference.

"They would be screened diligently until they are cleared," the chief minister said, adding authorities are contacting each to gauge their level of exposure and asking them all to remain at home for 15 days as a precaution.

It was unclear how many more people were being screened throughout the country. Murad Ali Shah also said the provincial government was working with local surgical mask importers and manufacturers to ensure a supply for the province.

With porous borders, creaking hospitals and large illiterate populations, Pakistan faces a potentially devastating health crisis from the new coronavirus. There are growing fears in Pakistan -- sandwiched between China and Iran, both hotspots for the disease -- over how the country would deal with the outbreak.

Schools were closed in Sindh and Balochistan on Thursday. The cost of surgical masks had already risen nearly tenfold in Karachi, from 180 rupees to 1,400 rupees per box of 50 masks.

"A lot of buyers are coming to us... but the stocks are gone," said Noman Qureshi, a shop owner in a medical market in Karachi.

Pakistan also suspended flights to and from Iran to try to stop the spread of coronavirus. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it was suspending all flight operations with Iran starting from Thursday evening till further notice. “We have decided to close the flights with Iran,” the aviation’s spokesman Sattar Khokhar said. Three Iranian carriers run seven flights a week to and from Pakistan.

Pakistan closed its border with Iran on Sunday following the outbreak in the neighbouring country which remained closed on Thursday for fifth consecutive day.

The UAE has also suspended ferry services with Iran until further notice, according to the UAE official news agency WAM.

The UAE Federal Authority for Land and Maritime Transport (FTA) announced the suspension of passenger ferry services with Iran and obliged all commercial vessels coming in to the country to present a statement of health condition for their crews, 72 hours ahead of arrival.

Meanwhile, the number of new coronavirus infections inside China - the source of the outbreak - was for the first time overtaken by fresh cases elsewhere on Wednesday, with Italy and Iran emerging as epicentres of the rapidly spreading illness.

Asia reported hundreds of new cases, Brazil confirmed Latin America’s first infection and the new disease - COVID-19 - was also detected for the first time in Pakistan, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Romania and Algeria.

The US health authorities, managing 59 cases so far - mostly Americans repatriated from a cruise ship in Japan - have said a global pandemic is likely. US President Donald Trump, seeking to calm markets and an increasingly worried public, said in a live broadcast that the United States was “very very ready” to face the virus threat and that Vice President Mike Pence would be in charge of the national response. It was one of just a handful of times that the president has appeared in the White House briefing room.

Stock markets across the world have lost $3.3 trillion of value in four days of trading. Wall Street reversed earlier gains on Wednesday afternoon and oil prices dropped to their lowest level in over a year, spooked in part by health officials saying dozens of people who had been in China were being monitored in suburbs of populous New York city - although no confirmed cases have been found.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio urged the federal government to tighten testing for visitors from a range of countries where the virus has been spreading, adding that its eventual detection in the city was “100% certain.”

The virus that can lead to pneumonia is believed to have originated in a market selling wildlife in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has infected about 80,000 people and killed more than 2,700, the vast majority in China.

While radical quarantining measures have helped slow the rate of transmission in China, it is accelerating elsewhere.

Germany, which has around 20 cases, said it was already impossible to trace all chains of infection, and Health Minister Jens Spahn urged regional authorities, hospitals and employers to review their pandemic planning.

There is no known vaccine for the virus. U.S. pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O) said on Wednesday it had started two late-stage studies to test its experimental antiviral drug remdesivir in humans.

As the cases have rippled outwards, the effects on large gatherings have increased. In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for sports and cultural events to be scrapped or curtailed for two weeks as concern mounted for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, while reports said the International Monetary Fund was considering whether to make its April meeting in Washington virtual. Shinzo Abe also asked all elementary, middle and high schools nationwide on Thursday to close until late March to help control the spread of the new virus in the country.

There have been nearly 50 deaths outside China, including 12 in Italy and 19 in Iran.