Saudi Arabia emptiees the Kaaba, the holiest place in Islam, for sterilization due to fear of the new CronaVirus on Thursday, an unpreccedented move after the Kingdom suspended the year-round pilgrimage of Umrah.
State television broadcast breathtaking pictures of an empty area with white tiles around the Kaaba – in the Great Mosque of Mecca, which is usually filled with tens of thousands of pilgrims.
The move was a “temporary preventive measure,” but the upper floors of the Grand Mosque were still open for prayer, a Saudi official told AFP. He called this measure “unprecedented.”
#VIDEO: The circling area around Holy Kaaba at the Holy Mosque in #Makkah was emptied of people temporarily in order to clean and sterilize it, due to #Coronavirus fears and to insure the safety of pilgrims. pic.twitter.com/8CivSYbS29
— Saudi Gazette (@Saudi_Gazette) March 5, 2020
