Riyadh (Web Desk): Saudi Arabia has announced to resume umrah pilgrimage for Muslims gradually from the first week of next October.
In the first stage, "6,000 citizens and residents within the kingdom will be allowed to perform the umrah per day from October 4", the ministry said in a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency.
Visitors from outside the kingdom will be permitted from November 1, when umrah's capacity will be raised to 20,000 pilgrims per day, the ministry added.
The kingdom had suspended the umrah in March due to COVID-19 pandemic and later scaled back the annual hajj in a blow to millions of pilgrims around the world amid fears that the coronavirus could spread to Islam's holiest sites.