HAJ pilgrims streamed out of the holy city of Makkah on Sunday, launching the rituals of the great pilgrimage which Saudi Arabia is holding in a scaled-down form for a second year to ward off the coronavirus.

Saudi Arabia is allowing only 60,000 fully vaccinated citizens and residents of the kingdom to take part, far from the vast crowds that descend on Makkah in normal times, when the ritual draws some 2.5 million pilgrims.

Since Saturday, groups of pilgrims have been performing the “tawaf” at Makkah’s Grand Mosque, circling the Kaaba, a large cubic structure draped in golden-embroidered black cloth towards which Muslims around the world pray.

After that, pilgrims have been making their way to the Valley of Mina, where they will spend the night.

“46,000 pilgrims have arrived in Mina,” Deputy Minister of Haj and Umrah Abdelfattah Suleiman Mashat told AFP on Sunday morning.

“The number of women participating in the haj this year exceeds 40%,” he added.

Mina sits in a narrow valley surrounded by rocky mountains, and is transformed each year into a vast encampment for pilgrims.

“Public health teams are monitoring the health status of pilgrims around the clock upon their arrival in Makkah,” said Sari Asiri, director of the haj and umrah department at the health ministry.

Anyone found to be infected would be taken to isolation facilities, he added.

The haj, usually one of the world’s largest annual religious gatherings, is one of the five pillars of Islam and must be undertaken by all Muslims with the means at least once in their lives.

This year’s pilgrimage is larger than the pared-down version staged in 2020 but drastically smaller than in normal times.

Participants were chosen from more than 558,000 applicants through an online vetting system, with the event confined to fully vaccinated adults aged 18-65 with no chronic illnesses, according to the  ministry.

Saudi Arabia has so far recorded more than 507,000 coronavirus infections, including over 8,000 deaths. Some 20 million vaccine doses have been administered in the country of over 34 million people. – AFP, July 18,  2021.