Saudi Arabia to allow 10 lakh Hajj pilgrims this year
Saudi Arabia has said it will allow one million people – from both inside and outside the kingdom – to perform the Hajj this year compared with only a few thousand local pilgrims over the past two years.
Pilgrims to Mecca this year must be under age 65 and fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, the ministry of Hajj and Umrah said in a statement carried by the SPA news agency.
Participants from abroad will be allowed this year but must present a recent negative COVID PCR test, and health precautions will be observed, it said.
Last year, the kingdom limited the annual Haj, one of Islam's five main pillars, to 60,000 domestic participants, compared to the pre-pandemic 2.5 million.
Visits to the holiest sites of Islam in Mecca and Medina for the week-long haj, and the lesser, year-round umrah pilgrimage, previously earned the kingdom about $12 billion a year, according to official data.
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