Coronavirus: IS asks militants to wash hands, avoid travelling to infected countries

In the wake of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, with Europe being the new epicenter, the terrorist group ISIS has advised its members to "stay away from the land of the epidemic", reports The Sunday Times.

The outbreak has so far left nearly 6,000 people dead and infected over 160,000 across the world.

The terrorist group, in the latest issue of its Al-Naba newsletter, has issued a set of directives said to be based on the Shariah and the Hadiths, and not referring to the guidance issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) or other medical experts, according to The Sunday Times report.

It instructed followers to cover their mouths when yawning and sneezing and to wash their hands regularly.

Terming the "plague" as a "torment sent by God on whomsoever He wills", the newsletter said, "Illnesses do not strike by themselves but by the command and decree of God," The Sunday Times report read.

In the newsletter, it also warned that the "healthy should not enter the land of the epidemic and the afflicted should not exit from it".

The IS, which lost almost all its "Caliphate" in the Middle East after a series of defeats, still retains some control in small pockets of Iraq and Syria.