The

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

affected the 2020

Hajj The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried o ...

(pilgrimage), which is the fifth pillar of the

Five Pillars of Islam The Five Pillars of Islam (' ; also ' "pillars of the religion") are fundamental practices in Islam, considered to be obligatory acts of worship for all Muslims. They are summarized in the famous hadith of Gabriel. The Sunni and Shia agree o ...

, where millions of Muslims from around the world visit

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...

and

Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...

every year during Hajj season for a week. Over 2,400,000 pilgrims attended Hajj in 2019. Due to the highly contagious nature of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

in crowded places, various international travel restrictions, and social distancing recommendations, the

Ministry of Hajj and Umrah The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah (MHU) () is a government ministry in Saudi Arabia which is responsible for supervising the facilitation of essential services to the pilgrims arriving in the country for Hajj and Umrah purposes, including overseeing ...

advised Muslims to postpone their pilgrimage until the pandemic was mitigated. However, in June 2020, the Ministry opened up Hajj to people of all nationalities residing in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

, with foreigners still banned from attending to ensure pilgrims' safety and prevent the transmission of COVID-19. In April 2022, Saudi Arabia eased COVID-19 restrictions and increased Hajj capacity. One million pilgrims from inside and outside the country are allowed to participate in the Hajj.

Background

The

is an ongoing global pandemic caused by

coronavirus disease 2019 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

. The outbreak of the

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...

was first noted in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city a ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

in early December 2019. On 30 January 2020, COVID-19 was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...

, and was declared a

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of in ...

on 11 March 2020. The transmission of COVID-19 occurs mainly through personal contact with a carrier of the virus, which makes it highly contagious in small spaces where human contact is inevitable. COVID-19 can be transmitted through contaminated objects that were touched or coughed on by an infected person.

Historical cancellations of Hajj

Hajj (pilgrimage) has been cancelled 40 times through the

history of Islam The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic, military, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE. Muslims re ...

due to disease outbreaks, political disagreements, and battles. In 930-940 CE (318-328 AH), Hajj was canceled due to the Qarmatian attack, which led to the murder of 30,000 pilgrims and the looting of the Black Stone. In 1831, Hajj was suspended after the arrival of Indian pilgrims in Mecca led to the outbreak of a new plague, which is claimed to have killed more than half of the pilgrims in Mecca. The first outbreak of

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting an ...

in Mecca occurred in 1846, killing more than 15,000 and causing a citywide plague lasting until 1850. A second outbreak of cholera happened in 1858, leading to pilgrims being quarantined inside Hajj camps in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

Hajj 2020

In February 2020, Saudi Arabia closed the two holy sites of

and

to halt the spread of the virus, but reopened in early March. Later, measures were taken by the Saudi government to mitigate an outbreak of COVID-19, such as imposing a 24-hour

curfew A curfew is a government order specifying a time during which certain regulations apply. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to ''not'' be in public places or on roads within a certain time frame, typically in the evening and ...

in Mecca and Medina.

Participant selection

On 23 June 2020, Saudi Arabia announced Hajj would be held for a limited number of pilgrims who resided within the country due to the high risk of COVID-19. The Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah imposed restrictions to the type of pilgrims who can attend Hajj in 2020, only healthy Saudi residents between the ages of 20 and 50 with no

COVID-19 symptoms The symptoms of COVID-19 are variable depending on the type of variant contracted, ranging from mild symptoms to a potentially fatal illness. Common symptoms include coughing, fever, loss of smell (anosmia) and taste (ageusia), with less co ...

were allowed to participate. Participants had to first apply online, and preference was given to those who had not attended in the past. Pilgrims were chosen from the COVID-19 recovery database, 70% of them were non-Saudi residents. Only ten thousand pilgrims were expected, as opposed to over two million in previous years.

Safety measures

The Saudi Ministry of Health reported taking serious measures during the Hajj 2020. Pilgrims who were not affected by the

were required to quarantine themselves at hotel rooms or at their homes if they lived close enough to Mecca for a week prior to the arrival to perform Hajj. Inside the mosque, pilgrims were asked to maintain a safe social distance of two meters, and were separated into groups of 20 individuals who were accompanied by a guide through their whole Hajj performance.

Hajj 2021

On 12 June 2021, Saudi authorities banned foreign visitors for the second consecutive year and limited the pilgrimage to 60,000 people. It also imposed as condition that people participating be between the ages of 18 and 65, vaccinated and without chronic diseases.

International reactions

On 15 May 2020, the Singapore Muslims Council (MUIS) advised to skip Hajj in this year due to the

. On 2 June 2020, the Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs declared cancelling the 2020 Hajj before any groups of Indonesian pilgrims headed to Mecca. On 6 June 2020, the Indian Hajj Committee announced it would provide refunds to all the pilgrims who were unable to attend Hajj in 2020. On 11 June 2020,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

announced it was barring pilgrims from attending Hajj in 2020 out of concerns over the danger of COVID-19, and the high spreadability of the virus in crowded places.

References

{{COVID-19 pandemic

Hajj Five Pillars of Islam Islam-related lists