The courtyard of the Muslim holy site Kaaba, the cuboid shrine located at the centre of the Great Mosque of Mecca, Saudi Arabia was indefinitely shut down on Thursday as the authorities are pushing to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.
In a video, uploaded on Twitter by Director of Research at King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies Abdullah Khaled, the usually crowded area around the Kaaba is almost completely deserted except for cleaners disinfecting the perimeter.
The novel coronavirus disease was first detected in Wuhan, China's Hubei Province, in late December 2019 and has since spread worldwide. In late January, the World Health Organisation declared a global health emergency in light of the epidemic.
