Saudi Arabia to start receiving Umrah requests from foreign worshippers
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Riyadh: The Saudi governed has announced that starting from Monday, the kingdom will begin receiving requests from foreign worshippers to perform Umrah -- an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
As per a report by Xinhua news agency the Ministry of Haj and Umrah in a statement jas announced that only the vaccinated and the recovered will be provided with permissions concerning the Covid-19 pandemic.
With a capacity that would rise to 2 million pilgrims from 60,000 pilgrims per month, Mecca and Medina will start welcoming visitors from abroad to their mosques while maintaining COVID-19 precautionary measures.
An official in the Hajj and Umrah Ministry said domestic and overseas pilgrims will have to include authorized COVID-19 vaccination certificates along with their Umrah request.
The Deputy Minister of Haj and Umrah, Abdulfattah bin Sulaiman Mashat said the authorities determine the countries from which Umrah performers come, and their numbers on a periodic basis according to the classification of preventive measures.
He called upon the performers to adhere to organisational plans and health procedures set by the Ministry.
Vaccinated pilgrims from countries that Saudi Arabia includes on its entry-ban list will have to be institutionally quarantined upon arrival, the report added.
On November 1, 2020, Saudi Arabia received foreign pilgrims under tight precautionary measures to perform Umrah for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic early last year.