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 Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency on Wednesday that the kingdom had decided “to suspend Umrah temporarily for citizens and residents in the kingdom”, presstv.com reported.

They were also barred from “visits to the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina”, according to a Foreign Ministry tweet.

The aim is to “limit the spread of the coronavirus and prevent its access to the two holy mosques, which are witnessing permanent and intense crowds, which makes the issue of securing these crowds of utmost importance,” a spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry said.

A week earlier, Saudi authorities imposed a ban on overseas pilgrims visiting the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.

The move comes as many world countries are grappling with a growing coronavirus outbreak originating from China.

There are concerns that Saudi Arabia — which receives nearly 7 million Umrah pilgrims every year — is not being transparent about how badly it has been hit by the virus.

Saudi Arabia only confirmed its second case on Wednesday, claiming the victim — a Saudi national had returned from Iran via Bahrain.

Riyadh alleged that the Saudi citizen was accompanied by another person who was declared the kingdom’s first case of the coronavirus on Monday.

Riyadh’s last week decision to ban Umrah alone disrupted travel for thousands of Muslims already headed to the kingdom and potentially affects plans later this year for millions more ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadan and the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

The new coronavirus, recently named COVID-19, can cause various symptoms ranging from those of the common cold to more severe diseases such as pneumonia. Common signs include fever, cough, shortness of breath, and other respiratory complications.

The virus, which emerged in central China in late December last year, has so far claimed more than 3,000 lives worldwide.

More than 93,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide and the number of deaths from the virus, which is spreading in the Middle East, Europe and other parts of the world, has reached 3,110 globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Last week, WHO, which has already declared the outbreak an international health emergency, raised the global coronavirus alert level from high to “very high”, its top-level of risk assessment.

In Iran, it first showed up in the north-central city of Qom — a pilgrimage destination. COVID-19 has killed 92 people and infected 2,922 others in Iran as of late Wednesday.