Islam’s annual Hajj trip will return to pre-pandemic levels this year after restrictions saw the annual religious celebration limited amid coronavirus worries, Saudi authorities said. The Hajj, obligatory of all able-bodied Muslims once in their life, marks one of the world’s greatest gatherings of people. Before the epidemic, the pilgrimage brought millions each year to Islam’s holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that faithful Muslims pray towards five times a day.
The first: the return of the numbers of pilgrims to what they were before the epidemic without any age restrictions,” Saudi Hajj and Umrah Minister Tawfiq bin Fawzan al-Rabiah stated on Monday evening, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency. “And the second: permitting any Hajj mission from around the world to work with any licensed firm that satisfies the standards of the pilgrims of those countries,” he continued. In 2019, more than 2.4 million people took part in the pilgrimage. However, in 2020, during the coronavirus lockdowns, the Gulf kingdom dramatically limited the Hajj with as few as 1,000 citizens of Saudi Arabia able to take part. It was an unparalleled step unseen even during the 1918 flu outbreak that killed tens of millions globally. In 2021, around 60,000 people of Saudi Arabia undertook the pilgrimage. Last year, approximately 900,000 pilgrims were welcomed to Islam’s holy sites of Mecca and Medina for the pilgrimage. However, only people aged below 65 with immunization against the coronavirus and a negative test might enter the country. Disease outbreaks have long been a concern around the Hajj. Pilgrims fought off a malaria outbreak in 632, cholera in 1821 killed an estimated 20,000, and another cholera outbreak in 1865 killed 15,000 before spreading globally. More recently, Saudi Arabia faced threat from a different coronavirus, one that causes Middle East respiratory disease, or MERS. The monarchy enhanced its public health precautions for the Hajj in 2012 and 2013, advising the ill and the elderly not to take part.
It was not immediately obvious what health measures would be taken for the Hajj, which occurs according to the lunar-based Islamic calendar this year at the end of June. While Saudi Arabia has no obligation for coronavirus vaccinations or testing, it does require pilgrims to get vaccinated for other illnesses. The pilgrimage is a significant economic engine for the oil-rich nation, delivering billions of dollars of non-oil money to the monarchy.
