MAKKAH: The Technical and Service Authority at the Grand Mosque in Makkah has intensified its preparations amid Covid avoidance for the Umrah season which allowed recently for the green-list countries. 

In this regard sterilization and perfuming processes of the Grand Mosque and its outdoor parks are going on round-the-clock to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, reported WAM on Monday. 

More than 4,000 workers are sterilizing the Grand Mosque and related facilities more than 10 times a day with the use of the specially bought best sterilizers and perfumes. Almost 60,000 litres of environment-friendly sterilizers are used daily, apart from some 1,200 litres of perfumes and 470 equipment including washing machines. 

The Authority has also enhanced its preventive and precautionary procedures to protect visitors of the Grand Mosque from the virus, where field teams work round the clock to implement these procedures precisely to maintain the safety of Umrah pilgrims and visitors. 

Recently the Saudi Arabian authorities allowed 20,000 domestic and international pilgrims to enter the kingdom to perform Umrah as Saudi Gazette reported on Saturday. 

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah Hisham Bin Saeed quoted as saying only pilgrims from green list countries, as per the instructions from the Ministry of Health and General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), will be allowed, while the number of pilgrims will be gradually increased during the next period. 

The countries currently facing the travel ban — prompted by the continued surge in cases of coronavirus and its variants — are India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

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