The state news agency (SPA) on Sunday reported that Saudi Arabia will begin receiving Umrah pilgrimage requests from abroad for vaccinated pilgrims starting from August 9, after almost 1.5 years of not receiving overseas worshippers due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mecca and Medina will welcome visitors from abroad to their mosques with a capacity of 60,000- 2 million pilgrims per month while maintaining Covid-19 precautionary measures.
An official in the Hajj and Umrah Ministry said that along with their Umrah request, the domestic and overseas pilgrims will have to include authorised Covid-19 vaccination certificates, as well.
The report also added that the vaccinated pilgrims from countries that Saudi Arabia includes on its entry-ban list will have to be institutionally quarantined upon arrival.
According to Saudi Arabia’s e-Visa portal, the country has decided to allow entry to foreign travellers fully vaccinated with either Sinopharm or Sinovac vaccines, provided they also receive a booster shot of either of the four vaccines approved by Saudi.
The four approved vaccines are Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
“Guests who have completed two doses of the Sinopharm or Sinovac vaccines will be accepted if they have received an additional dose of one of the four vaccines approved in the Kingdom,” one of the guidelines for travellers on the portal says.
Umrah was reopened in October for domestic worshippers after the pandemic hit the world.
In the month of July, Islam’s holiest sites’ home for the 2nd year in a row had hosted a limited-numbered domestic Haj pilgrimage.