RABAT — Morocco’s health minister has advised the country’s Muslim faithful against making pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia this year, with the deadly MERS virus having killed nearly 300 people there so far.

Last week, the health ministry urged the sick and the frail to postpone any planned pilgrimages until 2015, and circulated among those determined to go information on the health risks from the virus.

Speaking in parliament Tuesday, June 17, Lahoucine Louardi appeared to revise his ministry’s advice, extending it to all Moroccans planning the hajj this year.

“We advise pilgrims not to travel to the Holy Sites,” he was quoted as saying by the official MAP news agency. He added the decision was taken “after consultations with several parties, in particular the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Arab health ministers.”

MERS “is a dangerous disease that kills one in three people infected,” he said, adding that there was no antidote for it. A source at the health ministry confirmed the recommendation, while insisting that it did not amount to a ban.

According to official statistics, Morocco has an annual quota for 2014 of 25,600 pilgrims, which is strictly controlled.

The Haj pilgrimage takes place in October this year.