In pictures: Mosques empty for Friday prayers as worshippers stay home over coronavirus

Lebanon has been partially locked-down to contain the spread of the coronavirus – officially known as Covid-19 – which has killed at least four people in the country. 

In Sidon, Lebanon's third largest city, local mosques fell completely silent as congregational Friday prayers were cancelled. (Reuters/Ali Hashisho)

Sidon residents Ahmad al-Asmar, 84, and his wife Nouzat Awada, 79, took the opportunity to perform Friday prayers together inside their home. (Reuters/Ali Hashisho)

To contain the spread of the virus, Saudi Arabia banned Umrah, a non-compulsory religious pilgrimage which Muslims from around the world partake in all year round.

It also announced on Thursday that it was banning entry to the holy mosques in Mecca and Medina – the two most important sites in the Islamic faith. 

At the Al-Rajhi mosque in Riyadh, the imam led prayers aloud despite the lack of congregants. (Reuters/Ahmed Yosri)

Before the outbreak of the virus, Palestinian Muslims in Jerusalem already faced difficulties praying at the Al-Aqsa mosque, with Israeli soldiers attacking worshippers and settlers regularly storming the compound. Just this week, Israeli settlers entered the area despite coronavirus restrictions. 

Al-Aqsa has been closed to contain the outbreak, however that didn't stop some from gathering outside to perform Friday prayers. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

There was no one to be seen at the Gamal Abdel Nasser mosque in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, where worshippers were forced to stayed home. (Reuters/ Mohamad Torokman)

Elsewhere in the occupied territories, Muslims in the Palestinian city of Tubas performed their own congregational prayers. (Reuters/Raneen Sawafta)

In the Iraqi capital Baghdad, one local imam prayed at his mosque alone. (Reuters/ Khalid al-Mousily)

There was a similar atmosphere in Iraq's holy city of Kerbala, where a man sat by himself in the closed-down Imam Abbas shrine. (Reuters/Abdullah Dhiaa al-Deen)

In another Iraqi holy city, Najaf, one family joined the millions around the Middle East spending Friday afternoon praying at home. (Reuters/Alaa al-Marjani)

This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition.