Riyadh: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ( KSA) has revealed the approved list of COVID-19 vaccines in the country for pilgrims during this year’s Haj.
The Saudi Health Ministry said that the total number of vaccines approved in the Kingdom for COVID-19 is ten.
The Ministry announced the names and required doses of these vaccines that pilgrims must receive before attending the upcoming Haj season in the kingdom.
Ten approved vaccines are
- Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, two doses
- Moderna vaccine, two doses
- Oxford-AstraZeneca, two doses
- Janssen, one dose
- Covovax, two doses
- Nuvaxovid (NUVAXOVID), two doses
- Sinopharm, two doses
- Sinovac, two doses
- Covaxin, two doses
- Sputnik V, two doses
On Saturday, June 4, the first batch of Haj pilgrims arrived at Prince Muhammad bin Abdulaziz international airport in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, after a COVID-19-engineered hiatus of two years.
The first batch consisted of 400 Haj pilgrims coming from Indonesia who were presented with flowers, dates and Zamzam water bottles upon arrival.
On Friday, June 3, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced the start of the registration period for the Haj pilgrimage for citizens and residents in the Kingdom
On Saturday, April 9, the ministry announced that one million international and domestic pilgrims will be given permission to perform Haj this year.
Key points for Haj 2022
- Those performing Haj must be under 65 years of age.
- The vaccine taken must be on the approved list that is recognised by the ministry of health within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- The pilgrims coming from outside the Kingdom are required to submit a negative COVID-19 PCR test result performed within 72 hours of the time of departure to the Kingdom.
The number of pilgrims in 2019 amounted to about 2.5 million pilgrims, but after the outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2020, Saudi Arabia allowed only 10,000 people from within the Kingdom to perform the ritual and raised the number in the following year to 60,000 fully vaccinated people who were chosen by lottery.
Saudi Arabia closed the Grand Mosque in March 2020. In October 2021, the mosque returned to receive worshipers at its full capacity without any distancing, but the wearing of masks is still mandatory.
In early March, the Kingdom announced the lifting of most restrictions, including social distancing in public places and quarantine for vaccinated arrivals, steps that were introduced to allow the arrival of pilgrims from outside the Kingdom this year.
