Saudi Arabia halts pilgrimages over virus; Iran says 22 dead
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Foreign Ministry
MERS
the World Health Organization
the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University
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Mojtaba Zonnouri
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Al Saud
Muhammad
Kristian Ulrichsen
Kianoush Jahanpour
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Nasser Karimi
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Qassim Abdul-Zahra
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Summary
Saudi Arabia on Thursday banned foreign pilgrims from entering the kingdom to visit Islam's holiest sites over the new coronavirus, potentially disrupting the plans of millions of faithful ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and as the annual hajj pilgrimage looms. It appeared Saudi officials worried about the risk of pilgrims spreading the virus as they had in Iran. There have been no confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in Saudi Arabia amid the outbreak. “Saudi Arabia renews its support for all international measures to limit the spread of this virus, and urges its citizens to exercise caution before traveling to countries experiencing coronavirus outbreaks,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement announcing the decision. The hardest-hit nation in the Mideast is Iran, where Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour on Thursday reported 26 deaths out of 245 confirmed cases of the illness, named COVID-19.
As said here by JON GAMBRELL Associated Press