Saudi Arabia: Vaccinated teens allowed to perform Umrah

Abu Dhabi: Saudi Arabia’s Hajj and Umrah Ministry says fully vaccinated 12 to 18-year-olds are now allowed to perform Umrah.

“Some 13,000 permits were issued to this age category to allow them to perform th rituals,” the ministry added.

Saudi Arabia began receiving Umrah pilgrimage requests from abroad for vaccinated pilgrims starting August 9 after a year and a half of not receiving overseas worshippers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With a capacity that would rise to 2 million pilgrims from 60,000 pilgrims per month, Mecca and Medina will start welcoming visitors from abroad to their mosques while maintaining COVID-19 precautionary measures.

An official in the Hajj and Umrah Ministry said domestic and overseas pilgrims will have to include authorised COVID-19 vaccination passports along with their Umrah request.

Vaccinated pilgrims from red list countries will have to be institutionally quarantined upon arrival.

Umrah, a pilgrimage to Islam’s two holiest sites that is undertaken at any time of the year, was reopened in October for domestic worshippers after it was totally suspended upon the outbreak of the pandemic.

Saudi Arabia hosted a limited-numbered, domestic Hajj pilgrimage in July for the second year.