By Abubakarr Bah, Information Attaché, Saudi Arabia
Worshipers at the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah are now offering prayers without social distancing.
The lifting of social distancing during prayers is the first of restrictions to be lifted since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The imams of Masjid Al-Haram and Masjid An-Nabawi on Sunday instructed worshipers to “straighten the rows and close the gaps.”
An official source at the Ministry of Interior said on Saturday that social distancing at the Two Holy Mosques and all other mosques in the Kingdom would end but that worshipers would still have to wear face masks.
Ecstatic worshipers in the Grand Mosque in Makkah Al-Mukkarram and Prophet’s Mosque in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarrah and all the mosques in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia lined up shoulder-to-shoulder to perform prayers for the first time since the restriction was imposed in May 2020 as part of a wide range of measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 disease.
