As MERS virus spreads, Saudis question Mecca preparedness ahead of high pilgrimage season

Officials in Saudi Arabia are raising alarm that the kingdom is not doing enough to prevent Mecca from becoming a route for exporting an often deadly respiratory virus as millions of Muslims from around the world converge on the city to perform pilgrimage at Islam’s holiest site. The calls have taken on greater urgency as Saudi Arabia struggles to contain a surge in infections from the Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS. The country has seen the most infections worldwide by far — more than 500 since 2012 — and in past weeks the numbers have accelerated with several deaths reported nearly every day and new infections often numbering in the double digits. So far Mecca, near the western Red Sea coast, has seen fewer cases than other parts of Saudi Arabia. Since the coronavirus was first discovered in 2012, there have been two annual hajj pilgrimages to the city, and neither...