key: cord-0703610-dfma5kqc
authors: Badshah, Syed Lal; Ullah, Asad; Badshah, Syed Hilal; Ahmad, Irshad
title: Spread of Novel Coronavirus by Returning Pilgrims from Iran to Pakistan
date: 2020-04-09
journal: J Travel Med
DOI: 10.1093/jtm/taaa044
sha: c92fc6b61d19ef5c07fc5129845935af518c3d74
doc_id: 703610
cord_uid: dfma5kqc

nan

Iran was initially reluctant to close its borders with its neighbors as religious tourism is a big part of its revenue generation and the international community has already imposed economic sanctions over it due to its nuclear program. 3 Every year approximately 0.7 million Shia sect Muslims from Pakistan visit for a pilgrimage to various shrines in the cities of Iran that include Qom, Tehran, Tabriz, and Mashhad. It has been estimated that there are over eight thousand sacred sites in Iran alone and every year around eight million foreigners visit these shrines ( Figure 1 ). The pilgrimage mostly includes visits to cities like Karbala, Najaf, Kufa, Samara, and Baghdad in Iraq and several places in Damascus in Syria. These religious visits peak around the birth and death anniversaries of various religious leaders. Besides these specific anniversaries, the early spring season is a favorable time for the pilgrimage to these holy 

Estimation of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Burden and Potential for International Dissemination of Infection From Iran

COVID-19 battle during the toughest sanctions against Iran

Isolation, quarantine, social distancing and community containment: pivotal role for old-style public health measures in the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak

The positive impact of lockdown in Wuhan on containing the COVID-19 outbreak in China

The authors declared no conflict of interest.

No funding was utilized for this work.