After a two-year absence, international pilgrims will perform the yearly Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia for the first time starting Wednesday, after previously being restricted amid the kingdom’s battle to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
Some one million people are expected to be in attendance in the holy city of Mecca in Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) for the start of the five-day ritual – a large jump from last year when only 60,000 pilgrims were permitted. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic’s early waves and before vaccines were available, about 10,000 were selected.
“We are very excited and happy to be here [for Hajj] … It’s a great feeling to do something that is a core religious duty,” Hammad Tahir, a Pakistani citizen, told Al Jazeera via phone from the western city of Medina, Islam’s second holiest site. Many Muslims around the world have been worried about attending a mass gathering of people while the pandemic continues, and infections are rising in some countries.