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RIYADH: A few years before the coronavirus, some 3 million white-clad pilgrims from around the world flocked to the holiest sites of Islam to witness the haj of Saudi Arabia’s blazing sun.
With the pandemic making giant gatherings impossible, only a few thousand pilgrims, Saudis and foreign citizens, are collecting this year on Mount Mercy on the plains of Arafat for the ultimate ritual. Percentage of a non-unusual request.
“Everyone will pray that this pandemic will end and that all the peoples of the world will see months later after all the suffering of the coronavirus,” said Ammar Khaled, a 29-year-old Indian pilgrim who is an IT professional in Jeddah. .
Saudi Arabia relies on its tutelage of Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina and its non-violent haj organization, which has been marred in the afterlife by fatal stamps, fires and riots.
Over the years, the kingdom has spent billions of dollars to protect one of the world’s largest devotee gatherings.
This year, he faces the challenge of doing haj, an exclusive duty in life for each and every healthy Muslim who can do so, and a major source of income for the government, protected from COVID-19.
To this end, for the first time in fashion history, it has particularly reduced the number of pilgrims to the implementation of measures of social estrangement.
The minister of Haj said in June that the number of pilgrims would be limited to about 1,000, but no official figures were given from those performing the rituals this week. Some local media cited a figure of about 10,000.
Saudi fitness and protection professionals on the front line of the fight against the disease account for about 30% of the total, and the rest come from nationalities residing in the Kingdom.
Pilgrims dressed in masks turned around the Kaaba, a stone design that is the sacred maxim in Islam and the direction Muslims are heading to pray, in small teams of 50 people, each keeping their distance and accompanied by a fitness professional who tracks their movements.
Unlike previous years, when they rushed to the Kaaba, pilgrims are allowed to touch the construction of cubic stone covered with black cloth and wrapped in Arabic script in golden silk.
The workers disinfected the structure, rubbing the Oud perfume, the sweet, woody popular Arab smell, on its walls and using incense as they moved through the Grand Mosque.
PLAYING SAFE
The crowds of millions of pilgrims around the world may simply be a hotbed of virus transmission and, in the past, some faithful have returned to their country with respiratory problems and other diseases.
The government is very cautious this time.
The pilgrims passed several medical tests and were asked to quarantine themselves for a week before starting their journey, and then to isolate themselves for a week in their hotel room.
They were given an electronic bracelet to control their movements and a suitcase with all the fundamental needs.
On the site, 3,500 inconstants entered the Great Mosque of Mecca to disinfect it with 54,000 liters of disinfectant and 1,050 liters of deodorants according to the day.
The flats of the mosque have been cleaned 10 times a day, compared to 3 times in the past.
Six hospitals committed to the service of pilgrims, 51 clinics and two hundred ambulances were distributed elsewhere with 62 box groups and 8,000 fitness professionals.
“The kingdom is based on years of delight in the control of the pilgrimage and has worked hard with WHO to make the pilgrimage go smoothly,” said Hanan Balkhy, Assistant Director-General for Antimicrobial Resistance at the World Health Organization.
With joy and tears, pilgrims will spend the day on Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his sermon.
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