Healthcare plays a major role in ensuring that Hajj is successful and runs smoothly every year in Saudi Arabia, providing various medical services and dealing with epidemiological threats.
The Saudi government provides unlimited support to the crowd management and medical provision. A great deal of experience in dealing with all kinds of challenges has been accumulated after 95.8 million pilgrims visited Saudi over the past fifty years.
Procedure differs between those making pilgrimage from within Saudi Arabia and those coming from abroad. The former are required to visit the electronic pathway/website in order to view all the different programs and services and their prices, select the program and service that suits them, pay for it online and obtain a Hajj permit. For pilgrims from abroad, arrangements are made between their countries’ delegations and the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah and signed by those intending to visit.
On a call with Asharq Al-Awsat, Dr. Ziad Mimish confirms that the Kingdom provides high-quality medical services and is well equipped to implement preventive measures because of its experience in dealing with epidemics over the years.
"Dealing with any new virus provides experience in dealing with upcoming viruses. It dealt with the H1N1 virus in 2009. Years later, it dealt with various epidemics that were sweeping the world or certain areas of it, such as Ebola and then the coronavirus in its various forms.”
The Kingdom has decided to limit pilgrimage this year, with residents from 160 different nationalities set to constitute 70 percent of the total number of pilgrims, given the health concerns as the coronvirus continues to spread throughout the world. Also in light of these concerns, only those who are younger than 65 years of age and do not suffer from any chronic diseases will be eligible to obtain a permit.
In 2003, when the spread of SARS caused global concern, the Saudi Ministry of Health, in response, set up medical surveillance in all of the Kingdom’s entry points, and visitors were examined for symptoms that would potentially lead to a diagnosis, allowing pilgrimage to go smoothly. In 2009, when the H1N1 virus, known as Swine Flu was spreading, Saudi Arabia reduced the number of entry-visas, set conditions for those wishing to perform Hajj and issued a series of ads calling on Muslims to postpone their visit to the year after if possible.
Most recently, in 2012, when a coronavirus strain that had not been transmitted to humans before called the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) began to spread, the Saudi Ministry of Health stressed the need for the millions of pilgrims who were preparing to visit the Kingdom during the Hajj season, to take health safety measures to avoid infection.