Iran Press/ Iran News: "The number of pilgrims will return to what it was before the pandemic, without any age limit," Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfiq al-Rabiah told reporters in Riyadh.
The pilgrimage - one of five pillars of Islam, and which all able-bodied Muslims with the means are required to perform at least once - is scheduled for June 26. It is a significant government income source from worshippers’ lodging, transport, fees, and gifts.
In 2019, about 2.5 million people took part in the rituals. For the next two years, numbers were drastically curtailed numbers due to the pandemic. The kingdom allowed only limited numbers of its residents in 2020 and 2021 before it welcomed back one million foreign pilgrims in 2022.
In 2022, nearly 900,000 pilgrims, including some 780,000 from abroad, were welcomed to Islam's holiest cities of Mecca and Medina. At that time, they had to be between ages 18 and 65, as well as have a vaccination against Covid and present a negative test.
About 19 million also took part annually in the umrah, another form of pilgrimage to Mecca which - unlike the hajj - can be carried out at any time of the year, before the pandemic.
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