From France24: Only immunised pilgrims allowed to Mecca during Ramadan, say Saudis
Saudi authorities said Monday only people immunised against Covid-19 will be allowed to perform the year-round umrah pilgrimage from the start of Ramadan, the holy fasting month for Muslims.
The hajj and umrah ministry said in a statement that three categories of people would be considered “immunised” — those who have received two doses of the vaccine, those administered a single dose at least 14 days prior, and people who have recovered from the infection.
(Featured image is “Mecca” by Osama ALASSIRY and is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Personally, this strikes me as sensible as heck.
I don’t know how sound it is theologically, but… hey. Maybe we live under a new covenant now.Report
Not a Scholar of Islam by any stretch of the imagination but this might have enough elbow room to qualify as a loophole:
There are also criticisms of this sort of proxy hajjing… so it’s not a slam dunk. But I think, for one year, there’s elbow room.Report
Have they announced how they will verify people’s status? To me, that is the biggest question hanging over loosening restrictions for only those who meet certain immunity criteria.Report
I’m guessing that it’s something related to this.
I haven’t read anywhere that the Hajj itself will rely on the Tawakkalna app, but that’s what got announced in January and so… hey, I can google both Tawakkalna and Hajj.
Yep, this article confirms it:
(emphasis added)
So there it is.Report
It will be an interesting test. This is high stakes, both in terms of the likely number and determination of folks who don’t meet criteria who want to be there AND their desire to enforce the policy. We’ll learn a lot about how such policies may play out in real life.Report
You’ve seen pictures of the Hajj, right? They’re packed in there like sardines. I don’t know what percentage of people need to be vaccinated to avoid a superspreader event but I am sure that most Hajis come back with a head cold under the best of circumstances in non-plague years.Report
Yes, I almost wrote that no matter what they do, some people will get sick there. Even if they enforce the policy perfectly, some people will get sick. But that isn’t my concern.
Will they be able to enforce the policy? Will folks be able to fake their way in? Will there be riots? Will they say they enforced the policy very well but way more people get sick than ought to have if that was really the case? Etc etc etc.
Like I said, we’ll learn a lot. Not just about the virus and the vaccine and mass events. But about the ability to enforce (for lack of a better phrase) the immunity passport thing and what comes of trying to do so.Report