The Saudi Arabian body that oversees the two main holy sites in the kingdom – the Al Masjid Al Haram mosque in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina – ordered the removal of the barriers surrounding the Kaaba, the building at the center of the mosque in Mecca and considered the most sacred site in Islam. The barriers were installed as a preventative measure in July of 2020 near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. They were meant to ensure social distancing between pilgrims and to prevent them from touching or kissing the Kaaba and the Hajar Al-Aswad, or the Black Stone. The announcement comes after the hajj and at the beginning of the season of the Umrah, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, which can be undertaken at any time of the year except during the hajj. Some 1 million Muslim pilgrims, including 850,000 from outside of Saudi Arabia, participated in this year’s hajj, the first significant number of participants since the start of the pandemic. More than 2.5 million pilgrims participated in the hajj in 2019, and Saudi Arabia hopes to increase that number to nearly 5 million.