Umrah Reopens For Overseas Pilgrims On November 1

JAKARTA - The government of Saudi Arabia has again allowed domestic pilgrims to perform Umrah pilgrimage starting October 4, 2020. Meanwhile, foreign pilgrims are allowed on November 1, 2020 for pilgrims from abroad. That was the report of SPA News Agency, Tuesday, September 22.

Previously, the Saudis had closed their Umrah worship services - which Muslims in Makkah and Medina could normally do throughout the year - since March due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Launching Antara, Wednesday, September 23, the reopening of the Umrah service on October 4 means that up to 6,000 citizens and residents in Saudi Arabia perform Umrah every day.

According to the SPA report, only 30 percent of the normal capacity of 20,000 pilgrims are allowed to perform the daily Umrah pilgrimage, as a measure to prevent transmission of the virus.

The capacity of the new daily Umrah will be increased to 75 percent after two weeks, on 18 October 2020.

Meanwhile, for the opening in early November, Saudi Arabia will only allow Umrah pilgrims from a number of special countries that are considered safe, with a capacity of 100 percent until the end of the pandemic.

Apart from Umrah, the previous Saudi government also restricted the pilgrimage service - which normally can gather around 3 million people from all over the world, to only a few thousand domestic worshipers.

Official data shows that the Haj and Umrah services bring in revenue for Saudi Arabia of up to 12 billion US dollars (equivalent to Rp177 trillion) per year.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections by Saudi Arabia until September 22, 2020 was 330,798 cases, an increase of about 500 new cases from the previous day, with a total death of 4,542 cases.