The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation has announced that it will continue to receive all pilgrims from across the world and will only screen all visitors to ensure no one is infected. The Authority Chairman, Muhammad Nour Rahimi, gave some statements which have been posted on the official website of the Saudi Ministry of Hajj. He said preventive measures were put in place at all Saudi gateways. He also pointed out that the advice of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) did not include closing airports, although it requested to impose strict preventive measures at airports.
For their part, some members of the Egyptian Chamber of Tourism Companies called on the Egyptian Health Minister Hatem El-Gabaly to stop making irresponsible remarks and calling for putting off the Minor Pilgrimage (Umrah). They said this caused big losses for the companies, although the virus has not arrived in Egypt so far and has not reached a dangerous stage. The Chamber Vice-Chairman Nassar Turki said Dr. El-Gabaly should have called for closing the subway, the public transport, universities, schools, mosques, cinemas and theaters and canceling Friday prayers, instead of demanding that the Umrah be called off even if he was well aware of how many precautions the Saudi authorities took in the holy places. Adel Haykal, a member of the general assembly of the Chamber, said all officials, including the Minister of Health, Al-Azhar Sheikh and Egypt's Mufti had blown things out of proportion. They also said that the fact they had called for putting off the Umrah confirmed they wanted to distract the public opinion from a more important issue, as they very well knew how much the Egyptians cherish the Umrah.
He added that these statements aimed to create a state of confusion in the Egyptian society, as in reality there was no suspected case of infection among the Egyptians or in Saudi Arabia and no one came from virus-hit countries.
