Saudi Arabia has announced strict guidelines for this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in mid-July, including barring foreigners from performing it and restricting the event to vaccinated citizens and residents only.
The Ministries of Health and Hajj announced that a total of 60,000 pilgrims would be allowed to perform pilgrimage this year. According to Arab News, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation welcomed the kingdom’s decision to limit Hajj 2021 to residents.
The decision is “based on the Kingdom’s constant keenness to enable the guests and visitors at the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque to perform the rituals of Hajj and Umrah,” the ministry said. “The Kingdom puts human health and safety first.”
As per the rules, pilgrims must be free of chronic diseases, be fully vaccinated, and should fall within the 18-65 age bracket.
Last year, Saudi Arabia cancelled the Hajj for foreign pilgrims, holding a “very limited” pilgrimage instead, keeping in mind the COVID-19 situation. The Indian government, then, offered a refund for the over 2.13 lakh applicants who had already made payments for the process.
This year saw Hajj applications from India drop, amid rumours that the kingdom was mulling restricting foreign entry to only 5,000 pilgrims.
It was not the first time the Hajj had been cancelled due to an epidemic, a 967 AD plague outbreak also resulted in the pilgrimage being disrupted.
Saudi Arabia has had over 460,000 cases of COVID-19 and over 7,500 deaths. According to the Saudi Gazette, at least 40 per cent of the Saudi population had taken at least one vaccine shot, with 13.9 million vaccines administered as of the end of May. The kingdom had approved the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.
