For the second year in a row, Hajj is restricted to citizens and residents in Saudi Arabia due to the Corona pandemic

Today, Saturday, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced that the Hajj rituals for this season will be limited to only 60,000 citizens and residents inside the Kingdom, with the condition that they receive a vaccine against the Corona virus, in a decision that came against the background of the ongoing pandemic.

In a statement, the ministry also stressed the need for the health status of those wishing to perform the Hajj rituals to be free of chronic diseases, and to be within the age groups from 18 to 65 years for those vaccinated.

She justified this decision as “in compliance with the purposes of Islamic law in preserving the human soul,” noting that the nature of the crowds during the Hajj pilgrimage makes applying the highest levels of precautions a very important matter.

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statement stressed that the authorities were keen to provide all the necessary facilities to perform the Hajj and Umrah rituals, and that they had provided their services during the past ten years to more than 150 million pilgrims.

In turn, Abdul-Fattah bin Suleiman Mashat, Deputy Minister of the Saudi Hajj, said that human gatherings contribute to the spread of the epidemic, and that the numbers have been rationed in the interest of the safety of pilgrims.

Mashat added in a press conference that the pilgrimage was restricted to citizens and residents only in response to warnings of an increase in the outbreak of Corona.

And last year, the Kingdom’s authorities announced strict controls for a “limited pilgrimage” limited to those wishing from within the Kingdom, and in numbers that did not exceed 10,000 at the time, after it had exceeded two million from inside and outside the country.