Saudi Arabia has limited this year’s hajj pilgrimage to its citizens and residents due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Hajj and Health ministers announced that a total of 60,000 pilgrims will be allowed to perform hajj this year.
Foreign pilgrims have been banned from attending for a second year.
There are concerns about the new Covid-19 variants that have been spreading rapidly in some countries.
The Saudi government announced that those wishing to perform Hajj must be free of any chronic diseases, and to be within the ages of 18 to 65 years for those vaccinated against the virus according to the kingdom’s vaccination measures.
It stressed that 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”.
Last year, about 1,000 pilgrims from Saudi Arabia performed their annual pilgrimage due to the closure of international borders.
Before the pandemic, about 2.5 million pilgrims from around would visit Islam’s two holiest sites in Makkah and Medina for the week-long pilgrimage.
