The annual Hajj of Islam pilgrimage this year will return to pre-pandemic levels after restrictions reduced the annual commemoration due to coronavirus issues, according to Saudi authorities.
The Hajj, obligatory for all healthy Muslims once in a lifetime, represents one of the largest gatherings of other people in the world. Before the pandemic, the pilgrimage drew millions of people each year to Islam’s holiest city, Mecca, Saudi Arabia. house the cube-shaped Kaaba to which practicing Muslims pray five times a day.
“I bring you two smart news at this meeting. The first: the return of the number of pilgrims to what it was before the pandemic without any age restrictions,” said Tawfiq bin Fawzan al-Rabiah, Saudi minister of Hajj and Umrah. on Monday, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
“And the second: to allow any Hajj project around the world to deal with any authorized company that meets the pilgrims of those countries,” he added.
In 2019, more than 2. 4 million people participated in the pilgrimage. However, in 2020, amid coronavirus lockdowns, the Gulf country has drastically reduced the Hajj with only 1,000 Saudi nationals allowed to participate. It was an unprecedented move, including the 1918 flu epidemic that killed tens of millions worldwide.
In 2021, an additional 60,000 people in Saudi Arabia made the pilgrimage. Last year, nearly 900,000 pilgrims were received in Islam’s holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, for the pilgrimage.
However, only other people under the age of 65 with a coronavirus vaccine and a negative check can enter the country.
Epidemics have been a fear around the Hajj. Pilgrims battled a malaria epidemic in 632, cholera in 1821 killed some 20,000 people, and another cholera epidemic in 1865 killed 15,000 before spreading around the world.
More recently, Saudi Arabia has been threatened by another coronavirus, the one that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS. The kingdom stepped up its Hajj public health measures in 2012 and 2013, urging people with poor physical condition and the elderly not to participate.
It is not without delay that it becomes clear what health precautions will be taken for the Hajj, which falls according to this year’s Islamic lunar calfinishar at the end of June. Although Saudi Arabia has no need for coronavirus vaccinations or testing, it does require pilgrims to be vaccinated. to other diseases.
The pilgrimage is a major economic driving force for the oil-rich nation, which generates billions of dollars in non-oil profits for the kingdom.