Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country, has announced the cancellation of the Hajj pilgrimage this year due to concerns related to the Corona pandemic, while the World Health Organization has warned that infections are high in Russia and eastern Europe, while it has retreated in the western continent.
The Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs Fakhr Al-Razai said today that his country's authorities have decided to postpone the Hajj pilgrimage for the next year due to the continued epidemic of Corona throughout the world, stressing the responsibility of the authorities to ensure the health and safety of Indonesia’s pilgrims, indicating that the Saudi authorities do not have enough time to organize this pilgrimage. Year.
The number of Indonesian pilgrims is 121 thousand, and they are the most numerous compared to other countries.
The Saudi Minister of Hajj Muhammad Saleh Banten called at the end of last March the countries of the Islamic world to wait before making any plans for the pilgrimage until the vision about the Corona virus is clear. About two and a half million Muslims perform Hajj annually.
Places of worship
On the other hand, Indonesian President Goku Widodo said that restrictions on places of worship, schools and work will be gradually increased depending on the intensity of injuries in regions and cities.
To date, the total number of people infected with Coronavirus in Indonesia has reached 26,940 people, of whom 1641 died, and 7,637 have recovered, according to WorldMeter.
Globally, the newly created Corona virus has killed at least 375,555 people since it first appeared in China last December, according to an AFP count, according to official sources.
Officially, more than six million and 280 thousand cases have been registered in 196 countries and regions since the start of the pandemic, at least 2,648 thousand people have recovered.
Russia and Eastern Europe
On the other hand, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in a press briefing today that Russia and Eastern Europe are still witnessing a rise in the number of new cases of coronavirus, while infection rates are steadily declining in the regions of Western Europe.
Russia recorded 423,741 cases, the third highest infection rate in the world, including 5,037 deaths.
In Western Europe, a new phase of easing the restrictions imposed to curb the outbreak of the Corona virus began in France today, and Prime Minister Edward Philippe described this stage as a return to a nearly normal life, as cafes, restaurants and schools will open in most parts of the country except Paris and its region.
This will be accompanied by sanitary rules in which no more than ten people sit at each table, and at least one meter is kept between each group.
In Paris, it is only permissible to reopen the sidewalks of restaurants and cafes, and all the beaches in the country will be reopened, as well as most schools will continue to open gradually.
Tourist attractions
and prominent tourist sites in Europe began to receive the public today, despite the fact that the health measures and restrictions imposed on travel and movement still prevent the heavy reception of those attractions.
In Rome, the Colosseum (the first tourist destination in Italy) received on Monday about 300 visitors based on a prior reservation on the Internet, while in normal circumstances it welcomed twenty thousand tourists a day.
In Spain, where no deaths were recorded yesterday for the first time in three months, the famous Guggenheim Museum reopened its doors in the northern city of Bilbao.
With the start of several countries to gradually lift the isolation measures, the International Civil Aviation Organization published on Monday a series of health recommendations addressed to the air transport sector, in an effort to revive the aviation sector severely affected by the emerging Corona virus.
In contrast, the World Health Organization announced yesterday that four countries in Latin America, Brazil, Peru, Chile and Mexico, are among the ten countries that announced the highest toll from new infections in the newly created Corona virus within 24 hours.
"It is clear that the situation in many Latin American countries is far from stable," said WHO Director of Emergency Health Michael Rayne.
The Arab region
A member of the Egyptian Physicians Syndicate said that two new deaths were recorded among doctors due to infection with the Corona virus, bringing the deaths among doctors in Egypt due to the virus to 34 cases.
The union had warned a few days ago in a statement of the collapse of the health system completely in the event of what it described as negligence and negligence on the part of the Ministry of Health about medical teams fighting the outbreak of the Corona pandemic in the country.
In Kuwait, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health said today that it recorded 6 deaths and 887 infections with the virus, bringing the total deaths to 226 cases, and injuries to 28 thousand and 649, and in the UAE three people died and 596 contracted the disease, according to what the health authorities said, bringing the total number of infected to 35 thousand and 788 people , And the deceased to 269.