The crowds of worshipers and pilgrims in the Holy Mosque in Makkah performed the first Friday prayer without spacing since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, after easing the precautionary measures and raising the full capacity of the Grand Mosque.

The Two Holy Sanctuaries in Makkah and Madinah witnessed today the first Friday prayer held without distancing since the start of the Corona pandemic about a year and a half ago, after easing precautionary measures and raising the full capacity of the Grand Mosque.

And, starting last Sunday, worshipers returned to perform the five daily prayers in the Two Holy Mosques without distancing.

Activists at the time circulated on social media, video clips of the moment when the Imams of the Two Holy Mosques directed the worshipers before dawn prayers to stack and close the gaps and spaces, unlike what was the case for many months of demanding social distancing in light of the Corona pandemic.

# Photos


crowds of

worshipers at # Almsadjad_aharam


perform prayers # Friday


amid an

integrated system of services


. # Amarh_mkh pic.twitter.com/t8RCU3dOcv

— The Emirate of Makkah Al-Mukarramah Region (@makkahregion) October 22, 2021

The account of the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques Affairs on Twitter also published pictures of worshipers and pilgrims, showing the return of the tight rows again to the Two Holy Mosques, accompanied by the phrase "Stand up, establish your rows and consolidate."

And in March 2020, the Saudi authorities decided, for the first time in their history, to close the courtyard of the Kaaba and to put barriers around it as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of Corona.

Friday prayer for the first time in Tehran

In Iran, state TV reported that Friday prayers resumed in Tehran today, after a 20-month hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hundreds of believers attended the prayer in the Tehran University hall, wearing masks to prevent Covid-19, at a time when health workers sprayed disinfectant materials, and a separation distance of approximately one meter was maintained for the distance between the worshipers.

The prayer was held at the University of Tehran at a time when the authorities were warning of a sixth wave of the Corona virus, which has so far killed about 125,000 people in Iran, which has recorded more than 5.8 million infections.

Schools with fewer than 300 students are scheduled to reopen on Saturday.

The first Friday prayer in Tehran in nearly two years (Anatolia)

Also from tomorrow, Saturday, government employees, with the exception of the armed forces, will be prevented from working if they have not received at least the first dose of vaccination, according to a government bulletin earlier in the week.

Friday prayers were suspended in Tehran as of late February 2020, when the authorities of the Islamic Republic closed the doors of mosques after detecting the first cases of the disease on its soil.

In May of the same year, it was announced that worshipers would be allowed to return to mosques in some cities intermittently, and only in the event that the city’s classification fell on the scale of epidemiological risk adopted in Iran, without this including Friday prayers in the capital.

Russia records a record increase for the fourth day

In this context, Russia announced today, Friday, that it recorded a record daily increase in Covid-19 deaths, a week before the start of closing workplaces across the country by order of President Vladimir Putin with the aim of limiting the increase in infections.

The authorities stated that 1,064 people died in the past 24 hours, while injuries recorded a record increase for the second day in a row, reaching 37,141 injuries.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin's decision to declare the period from October 30 to November 7 "a holiday from work" would provide an opportunity to break the chain of infection, but described the situation as "extremely difficult".

He did not rule out the possibility of applying more measures after the seventh of next November, and attributed the situation again to the people's negative attitude towards vaccination.

booster dose

White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said today, Friday, that it is possible to take a booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, different from the type of the previous dose, but recommended taking the original vaccine, if available.

"We generally recommend that the booster dose be of the kind you initially received," National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci said in an interview with CNN.

"But for one reason or another, maybe different circumstances impose themselves, whether in terms of species availability or just personal reasons, then you can receive a different species," he added.

Yesterday, Thursday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that the population take booster doses of the Covid-19 vaccine for those who received doses of “Moderna” and “Johnson & Johnson”, and said that it is possible to choose a different vaccine than what they previously received. .

The recommendations opened the door for recipients of a single dose of Johnson & Johnson to take a dose of the "Pfizer" or Moderna vaccine, which showed greater protection in several studies.