key: cord-269679-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: 
doc_id: 269679
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 

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The authors declared no conflict of interest.

No funding was utilized for this work.
