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Courtyard of Mecca's Great Mosque Deserted as Riyadh Bans Piligrimages Over Coronavirus - Video

© REUTERS / STRINGERCleaners wear protective face masks, following the outbreak of the coronavirus, as they swipe the floor at the Kaaba in the Grand mosque in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia 3 March 2020.
Cleaners wear protective face masks, following the outbreak of the coronavirus, as they swipe the floor at the Kaaba in the Grand mosque in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia 3 March 2020. - Sputnik International
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Saudi Arabia temporarily halted pilgrimages to Medina and Mecca for both residents and foreigners amid the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) that has infected 98,436 people globally.

The courtyard of the Muslim holy site Kaaba, the cuboid shrine located at the centre of the Great Mosque of Mecca, Saudi Arabia was indefinitely shut down on Thursday as the authorities are pushing to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.

In a video, uploaded on Twitter by Director of Research at King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies Abdullah Khaled, the usually crowded area around the Kaaba is almost completely deserted except for cleaners disinfecting the perimeter.

The novel coronavirus disease was first detected in Wuhan, China's Hubei Province, in late December 2019 and has since spread worldwide. In late January, the World Health Organisation declared a global health emergency in light of the epidemic.

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