After three years of restrictions to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, a Saudi minister stated on Monday that the number of pilgrims attending this year’s Hajj will not be limited.
Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfiq al-Rabiah told reporters in Riyadh, “The number of pilgrims will return to what it was before the pandemic, without any age limit.”
During the opening of #Hajj_Expo 2023, H.E. Minister of Hajj and Umrah Dr. Tawfiq AlRabiah announces:
“Number of Hajj pilgrims in 1444H will return to how it was before the Coronavirus pandemic without age restrictions.”#Makkah_and_Madinah_Eagerly_Await_You pic.twitter.com/IZaPNqapIV
— Ministry of Hajj and Umrah (@MoHU_En) January 9, 2023
The pilgrimage, which is one of Islam’s five pillars and must be done at least once by all able-bodied Muslims with the means, is scheduled for June.
The Hajj saw approximately 2.5 million participants in 2019. Due to the pandemic, numbers drastically decreased over the next two years.
In 2022, Makkah and Madina, Islam’s holiest cities, welcomed nearly 900,000 pilgrims, including 780,000 from abroad.
At that time, they had to be under the age of 65, have a vaccine against Covivirus-19, and have a test that came back negative.
By 2030, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s economic reform plan aims to increase Umrah and Hajj capacity to 30 million pilgrims per year and generate 50 billion riyals (13.32 billion dollars) in revenue.
