Up to 10,000 people already living in the kingdom will participate in the annual ritual from Wednesday, according to hajj officials, a small fraction of the 2.5 million foreign pilgrims who participated last year.
Those who decided to participate in this year’s hajj were subjected to temperature checks and quarantined posts when they began arriving in Mecca this weekend.
State media showed that they were in shape disinfecting their luggage, and some pilgrims reported receiving electronic bracelets to allow the government to monitor their place.
The workers, with brooms and disinfectant, were seen cleaning around the Kaaba, designing in the middle of the Grand Mosque wrapped in a gold-embroidered cloth to which Muslims around the world pray.
Hajj’s government has sealed the Kaaba this year, saying that pilgrims will be allowed to touch it, to restrict the threat of infection.
They also reported the status quo of various gyms, cell clinics and ambulances to cater to the wishes of pilgrims, who must wear masks and practice social estrangement.
“There are no security disorders in this pilgrimage, however, it is about protecting pilgrims from the danger of the pandemic,” Khalid bin Qarar Al-Harbi, Saudi Arabia’s director of public security, told the press Monday.
About 70% of pilgrims are foreigners living in the kingdom, while the rest will be Saudi citizens.
All the faithful had to undergo coronavirus tests before arriving in Mecca and will have to be quarantined after the pilgrimage as the number of cases in the kingdom approaches 270,000, one of the largest epidemics in the Middle East.
According to a hajj Ministry program document, they won elaborate convenience kits, sterilized pebbles for a stoning ritual, disinfectants, masks, a prayer mat and ihraam, a seamless white garment worn by pilgrims.
‘Indescribable feeling’
The foreign press is excluded from this year’s Hajj, a massive global media event, as the government restricts access to Mecca.
The Saudi government had said first that only 1,000 pilgrims living in the kingdom would be allowed to participate in the hajj, but local media say that up to 10,000 pilgrims will be allowed to participate.
The ministry of hajj in the face of an avalanche of harrowing requests on Twitter from rejected candidates.
But Hajj’s minister, Mohammad Benten, insisted that the procedure is transparent, and told Saudi television Al-Arabiya that the “health determinants” shaped the basis of the selection.
“I hoped, among millions of Muslims, to get approval,” Emirati pilgrim Abdullah Al-Kathiri said in a video broadcast through the Saudi media ministry.
“It’s an indescribable Feeling Array … this is my first pilgrimage.”
The ministry said non-Saudi citizens from the kingdom of about 160 countries had participated in the online variety process.
But this was not the number of applications, and some disappointed pilgrims complained that the government-run lottery had not been explained clearly and said no explanation had been given as to why their rejection had been given.
Despite the pandemic, it is safer for many pilgrims to participate in this year’s ritual without the same old colossal crowds crammed into small devout sites, making it a logistical nightmare and fitness hazard.
Even in a year, hajj leaves pilgrims exposed to a number of viral diseases.
The government has reduced the pilgrimage because it may be a primary source of contagion, but this resolution will worsen the kingdom’s economic crisis, analysts say.
This is at a time when Saudi Arabia is facing a sharp fall in oil costs due to a global call collapse through domestic closures, triggering austerity measures, tripling a value-added tax and cuts in public officials’ allocations.
The annual hajj and Omra pilgrimages in combination generate about $12 billion (10.3 billion euros) per year.
(AFP)