Thousands of worshippers entered the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca in batches to perform the ritual of circling the sacred Kaaba, a cubic structure towards which Muslims around the world pray, AFP wrote.

The umrah, the pilgrimage that can be undertaken at any time, usually attracts millions of Muslims from across the globe each year but it was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It will be revived in three phases, with Saudi Hajj Minister Mohammad Benten saying last week that 6,000 pilgrims per day will be allowed in the first stage to perform the umrah “meticulously and within a specified period of time”.

A raft of precautions have been adopted to ward off any outbreaks during the umrah, according to state media.

The revered Black Stone in the eastern corner of the Kaaba – which it is customary but not mandatory to touch during the pilgrimage – will be out of reach, while the Grand Mosque will be sterilized before and after each group of worshippers.

Each group of 20 or 25 pilgrims will be accompanied by a health worker and medical teams will be on the ground in case of an emergency, Benten said.

Under the second stage from October 18, the number of umrah pilgrims will be increased to 15,000 per day, with a maximum of 40,000 people, including pilgrims and other worshippers, allowed to perform prayers at the mosque.

Visitors from abroad will be permitted in the third stage from November 1, when capacity will be raised to 20,000 and 60,000, respectively.

The decision to resume the pilgrimage was in response to the “aspirations of Muslims home and abroad” to perform the ritual and visit the holy sites, the interior ministry said last month.

The advice came as America logged another huge rise in its death toll — almost 1,500 in one day — and as new infections continued unabated, according to AFP.

The World Health Organization said that medical masks should be prioritized for health workers, but it opened the door to greater public use of homemade masks or other mouth coverings as a way to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

According to Reuters, a senior WHO official told reporters there was some possibility of airborne transmission of the virus that has now infected over one million people and killed 50,000 people worldwide since emerging in China last December.

But the main driver of the pandemic was still believed to be sick people with symptoms who were coughing and sneezing and contaminating surfaces or other people.

“We must preserve medical surgical respirator masks for our frontline workers. But the idea of using respiratory coverings or mouth coverings to prevent coughing or sneezing projecting disease into the environment and towards others … that in itself is not a bad idea,” Dr. Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergencies expert, told a news conference.

Since COVID-19 emerged late last year, around 1.1 million people have fallen ill. Almost 60,000 people have died.

Europe accounts for the lion’s share of the dead, with Italy and Spain bearing the brunt.

But the situation is rapidly deteriorating in the United States, and President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday suggested widespread use of simple masks or scarves might help stem the rocketing infection rate.

“It’s going to be really a voluntary thing,” he said. “You don’t have to do it and I’m choosing not to do it, but some people may want to do it and that’s okay.”

Anthony Fauci, head of infectious diseases at the US National Institutes of Health, cited “recent information that the virus can actually be spread even when people just speak as opposed to coughing and sneezing.”

The US recommendation will likely worsen an already severe shortage of masks in the United States and Europe, which both rely heavily on imports from China.

Officials in New York, the worst affected part of the US, began advising people to wear masks some days ago, and there were signs on the streets that the advice was being heeded.

“I am trying to protect me and my family. If everybody protects themselves, it’s better for all of us,” Eddie Marrero, a 58-year-old handyman, told AFP.

Around 277,000 Americans have tested positive for the disease, and the infection curve shows no sign of flattening, despite nine in ten citizens living under some sort of lockdown.

Field hospitals are sprouting in convention centers, sports arenas and parking lots all over the country as states gird for an expected influx of patients.

China, which appears to be over the worst of its outbreak, on Saturday held a national day of mourning for its dead — well over 3,000 people have died in the country where the virus first emerged late last year.

Cars, trains, and ships sounded their horns, and air-raid sirens wailed, as flags were flown at half staff from 10:00 a.m. (0200 GMT).

Beijing has said the observance is a chance to mourn virus “martyrs” — an honorific title bestowed by the government this week on 14 medical workers who died fighting the outbreak — including the man who was punished by officials for raising the initial alarm.

Spaniard Javier Lara survived after being put on oxygen in an overcrowded intensive care unit —  a shock to a 29-year-old who was athletic and doesn’t smoke.

“I was panicking that my daughter would get infected. When I started showing symptoms, I said I wouldn’t hold her or go near her,” he said, describing facing death with an eight-week-old as the “worst moment” in his life.

But there were also signs the peak may have hit on the continent.

Hardest-hit Italy recorded 766 new deaths but its infections rose by just four percent, the lowest yet, according to the civil protection service.

“It’s true that the latest figures, as high as they are, give us a little bit of hope, as the growth in new infections is slower than it was a few days ago,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, where strict social distancing measures are credited with curbing the spread.

“But it is definitely much too early to see a clear trend in that, and it is certainly too early to think in any way about relaxing the strict rules we have given ourselves,” she added.

‘Worst yet to come’

There was, however, yet another warning over the fate of the less developed world, especially conflict zones or places with large refugee populations.

“The worst is yet to come,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, referring to countries such as Syria, Libya, and Yemen. “The COVID-19 storm is now coming to all these theaters of conflict.”