Is it permissible to leave the country due to the spread of SARS and the suspension of Friday prayers, knowing that the disease has not reached the level of a plague?

It is unanimously permissible to depart from a land afflicted by a plague or a sickly land. Similarly, it is unanimously permissible to flee from a land of epidemic other than the plague. As for the plague itself, scholars have differed regarding the permissibility of departing from or entering a land where it has descended. The majority opinion prohibits this, while some scholars permit it, which is the well-known view of the Maliki school. It is permissible to depart for the purpose of seeking treatment from the plague or for a pressing incidental matter.