Saudi Arabia is the latest country to lift Covid-19 restrictions, including quarantine for vaccinated arrivals and social distancing in public spaces. A ministry source said to the Saudi Press Agency about the decision of suspending social distancing in public spots, including mosques to facilitate the arrival of Muslim pilgrims in the country.

Saudi Arabia, which is home to Islam’s two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, will no longer need vaccinated visitors to show a negative PCR or rapid test before their arrival in the kingdom or to quarantine. According to the decision, masks will only be allowed in closed places.

The Covid-19 outbreak has wreaked havoc on Muslim pilgrimages, which are generally a major source of revenue for the country, bringing in USD 12 billion per year.

For Saudi leaders, hosting the pilgrimages is a matter of prestige, as the custodianship of Islam’s holiest shrines is their most important source of political legitimacy.

The hajj was drastically reduced for a second year in 2021 due to a coronavirus outbreak, with only 60,000 fully vaccinated nationals and residents of Saudi Arabia taking part.

The Covid-19 cases in Saudi Arabia have dropped by 47.30 percent in just one week. The country reported 283 new cases on Saturday, taking the total number of infections to 7,47,119, since the start of the pandemic.

In other news, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Saturday urged the governments of several countries including India, China and Nigeria to appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the ongoing war in Ukraine and demanded a fresh round of sanctions on Russia.

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