The hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, will be authorized for 60,000 residents vaccinated this year.
For the second year in a row, Saudi Arabia is drastically limiting access to Mecca to avoid excessive crowds.
A choice that has economic consequences.
Saudi Arabia will allow 60,000 of its residents vaccinated against the coronavirus to make the hajj, a great Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca which is due to take place in July, a drastically reduced quota for the second year in a row in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Those who want to perform the hajj must be residents or nationals, be between 18 and 65 years old, not suffer from a chronic disease and have been vaccinated, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah said on Saturday in a statement relayed by the official SPA agency.
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A smaller crowd than usual
During the last hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, only tens of thousands of faithful residing in Saudi Arabia were able to perform this rite, against 2.5 million participants from all over the world in 2019. "Considering the huge crowd. who performs the hajj, spending long periods in several specific places, the highest level of health precaution is necessary ", added the ministry of Hajj, specifying that the competent authorities continued to monitor the health situation and in particular the appearance of new variants.
The pilgrimage, which every Muslim is supposed to accomplish at least once in his life if he can afford it, is usually one of the largest religious gatherings in the world and in this sense presents a high risk of the spread of the coronavirus.
Similar measures for Umrah
In April, the kingdom had already announced that only vaccinated people would be allowed to perform Umrah, the small Muslim pilgrimage that can be carried out throughout the year, from the beginning of the fasting month of Ramadan, causing discontent.
The small pilgrimage, suspended in March 2020 due to the pandemic, had timidly resumed in early October with drastic precautionary measures in this Gulf country most affected by the epidemic.
At first, only 6,000 Saudis and foreign residents in Saudi Arabia were allowed to perform Umrah every day, before the number rose to 20,000.
The inaccessible Kaaba
Some 60,000 people are currently authorized to perform daily prayers in the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's first holy city.
It is not possible for pilgrims to touch the Kaaba, a cubic construction in the center of the Grand Mosque, which Muslims around the world turn to for prayer.
In 2020, the drastic reduction in the number of pilgrims and health restrictions had allowed the authorities to proclaim that there had been no contamination during the great pilgrimage, which brought nothing to the kingdom.
In normal times, the hajj and the umra bring in about 10.3 billion euros per year to Saudi Arabia, which is trying to diversify its economy which is ultra-dependent on oil.
The economy strongly affected
Saudi Arabia has officially recorded more than 463,000 cases of coronavirus on its soil, including more than 7,500 deaths.
Authorities in the kingdom of 34 million people have announced that they have administered more than 15 million doses of the vaccine.
The kingdom's economy has been hit hard by the fall in crude oil prices, accentuated by the pandemic which heavily affected global demand in 2020. The holding of the hajj is not just an economic issue for the leaders of the kingdom, guardians of the two holiest cities of Islam (Mecca and Medina), which also draw from it an important source of legitimacy.
A series of disasters, including a stampede that resulted in the death of more than 2,300 faithful in 2015, and the limitation of pilgrimages to residents and Saudis only, however, have led to criticism of the management of holy places by the kingdom.