It is great news that Saudi Arabia eased COVID-19 restrictions and allowed most pilgrims from around the world to offer Umrah and perform Hajj (“Saudi Arabia scraps PCR tests, quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers,” March 6, Gulf Today website).

Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it was lifting most COVID-19 restrictions including social distancing in public spaces and quarantine for vaccinated arrivals, moves that could facilitate the arrival of Muslim pilgrims. The decision includes suspending “social distancing measures in all open and closed places” including mosques, the official Saudi Press Agency cited an interior ministry source as saying. Definitely — ‘Saudi Arabia scraps PCR tests, quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers’ — is a much-awaited news for the whole Muslim Ummah.

The Saudi kingdom, which is home to Islam’s two holiest places in Makkah and Madina, will no longer require vaccinated travellers to provide a negative PCR or rapid test before their arrival in the kingdom or to quarantine, SPA said.

The restrictions on performing Umrah and Hajj because of the worst COVID-19 situation had shocked Muslims around the globe.

There is no doubt that the start of the coronavirus pandemic was lethal and it was the responsibility of the world leaders to take precautionary measures to save billions of precious lives.

The world has fought united against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, hats off to the scientists and the world leaders, who worked hard and produced COVID-19 vaccine in a very short period of time.

After producing the COVID-19 vaccine, it was a huge task to convince people to get vaccinated to boost their immune power and be ready to fight against the deadly virus. The governments around the world have done brilliant work and made sure that people get vaccinated.

Being united for a noble cause the world has achieved huge success against COVID-19. As a result there are drastic changes in the coronavirus standard operating process, now people can celebrate the huge relief from COVID-19 restrictions and they can travel around the world with less curbs.

It’s also important that people should continue to pay attention to their respective governments’ directions regarding COVID-19 measures till the time the world will announce complete success against the deadly pandemic.

Qasim Jalal,
By email