Spokesperson of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques Hani bin Husni Haidar said that the presidency has completed procedures to apply social distancing among worshippers and Umra performers in the entire Grand Holy Mosque and its external yards. He also noted that the presidency reinstated social distancing stickers among worshippers' queues and routes of Umra performers, where this procedure is included tawaf (circumambulation) area and the praying areas inside the Grand Mosque and its yards, in a bid to preserve the safety of Umra performers and worshipper and to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The spokesman pointed out that the presidency, in cooperation with institutions working at the Grand Holy Mosque, supervises the mechanism of tawaf and the flow of Umra performers with ensuring social distancing among them, with going on with adopting virtual routes in tawaf area, in a way that enables Umra performers to perform their rituals easily while adopting preventive measures, referring to allocating the first floor of tawaf for non-Umra circumambulators with equipping it with virtual routes to ensure ease and flexibility of movement. As for praying at the Grand Holy Mosque, he said that the presidency provided the praying areas of the King Fahd expansion and the third Saudi expansion with guiding stickers for social distancing among worshippers and rearranged queues to ensure preventive measures, where field teams work round the clock to ensure full preparedness and the provision of all services for worshippers to guarantee performing their rituals easily.
