Big Blow To Muslims As Coronavirus Cancels Hajj-Pope Francis reportedly Infected

The Ghana Hajj Board has been effectively rendered jobless as the ravaging Coronavirus Covid-19 has forced Saudi Arabia to indefinitely suspend all pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina.

This is after it became obvious that the deadly virus from Wuhan-China has breached the Middle East Saudi.

According to CNN in its report today on the historic travel ban on Muslim pilgrims to Mecca by Saudi Arabia, “a wholesale temporary ban on foreign visits to the holy sites is a first in living memory.”

Across the Middle East, governments have been struggling to cope with the spread of Covid-19. Iran, for instance, has cancelled this Friday’s prayers in affected provinces, following reports of infections, including its Vice President, Masoumeh Ebtekar. Iraq has closed schools, public offices and other public gatherings until March 7. 

Meanwhile, while the country’s across the world struggle to restrict travels into their territories, particularly from China which is the epicentre of the deadly outbreak, Ghanaian authorities are nonchalant, as flights from China are reportedly still landing and dispatching passengers without quarantine at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

Accra-Based Adom FM reports that it has evidence to prove that Ghanaian authorities cannot be bothered by the potential of some of the China-originating passengers may sneak in the deadly Covi-19 into the country.

“Checks by Adomonline.com revealed people travelling from China have an easy pass into the country…contrary to reports that people entering Ghana from China would be quarantined for 14 days amidst the widespread of the coronavirus killing people in different parts of the globe, some Ghanaians are still entering the country without thorough checks,” the local radio station reported today.

According to the report, several Ghanaian students who have fled China for Ghana narrate how they had easy access into Ghana without any sign of them being quarantined for observation.

Recently, while the Ghanaian airport authorities were criticised for their laxity, they mounted a publicity stunt showing how inbound travellers are run through thermal scanners or checked with handheld thermometers.

However, more proactive countries have initiated quarantine mechanisms plus total ban of flights to and from China which spawned the deadly disease.

The Ghana Health Services (GHS) has also been criticised for having only issued one statement ever since the outbreak of the virus. Not a single publicity campaign against the rampaging Covid-19 has been mounted in Ghana as the terrifying disease is known to be notorious for its human-to-human infections.

At the last count, official figures show that about 3,000 out of the over 60,000 infections worldwide have resulted in mortality. However, whistle-blowers from China claim millions of Chinese have been infected with the disease and that the Chinese government is suppressing the true magnitude of the disease.

The World Health Organisation has graduated the Covid-19 to epidemic levels at par with SARS, MERS and other devastating flu-like infections that had ravaged the world in the past.

Meanwhile, reports coming in indicate that Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis may be at risk, as he reported indisposed this morning.

 The nature of the Pope’s illness has not been disclosed, but he was reportedly seen coughing and blowing his nose during yesterday’s Ash Wednesday Mass.

Pope Francis had held a public session in Rome where he had shaken hands and kissed faces of devotees, even though Italy has been the latest European country to be hard-hit by Covid-19 infections.