Saudi Arabia has restricted the annual hajj pilgrimage to its personal residents and residents for the second 12 months working in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the state Saudi Press Company (SPA) reported on Saturday.
Solely folks aged between 18 and 65 who’ve been vaccinated or immunized towards the virus, and are freed from continual illnesses, will be capable of participate, the ministry that manages the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca stated in an announcement carried by SPA.
It additionally set a most of 60,000 contributors.
“The choice [was made] to ensure the protection of hajj amid uncertainty over the coronavirus,” the dominion’s well being minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah stated in a televised press convention carried by SPA.
“Regardless of the provision of vaccine, there’s uncertainty over the virus and a few international locations nonetheless report excessive numbers of COVID circumstances, the opposite problem is the totally different variants of the virus, therefore got here the choice to limit hajj.”
The minister stated solely accepted COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Astrazeneca-Oxford, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson will likely be legitimate for the hajj.
Sources informed Reuters in Could a plan was being thought-about to bar abroad pilgrims from performing hajj, a as soon as in a lifetime obligation for each able-bodied Muslim who can afford it.
Earlier than the pandemic enforced social distancing globally, some 2.5 million pilgrims used to go to the holiest websites of Islam in Mecca and Medina for the week-long hajj, and the lesser, year-round umrah pilgrimage, which altogether earned the dominion about $12 billion a 12 months, in accordance with official information.
