Saudi at full capacity to ensure pilgrims' health during Hajj: Minister

Riyadh, July 9 (IANS) Saudi Arabia has announced that its health services were running at full capacity to ensure the health and safety of pilgrims during the ongoing Hajj season.

Health Minister Fahad bin Abdulrahman Al-Jalajel said that pilgrims at Saudi Arabia's Mount Arafat, a hill about 20 kilometers southeast of Mecca that hosted an important ritual of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, were in good health condition, Xinhua news agency reported.

Health Ministry spokesperson Mohamed Al-Abdal said there were no outbreaks of contagious diseases or illnesses that could endanger public health among the pilgrims, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The number of pilgrims in this year's Hajj season reached nearly 900,000, including about 780,000 foreign pilgrims and 120,000 pilgrims from Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's General Authority for Statistics revealed on Friday.

This year's Hajj began on Thursday and ends on July 12. It is the first to allow foreign pilgrims to perform Hajj after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

In 2021, the holy city of Mecca received around 60,000 pilgrims, while the number in 2019 was 2.5 million, according to the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.