Wednesday, 22 July 2020

Hajj preparations continue for 2020

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) has reported on the General Presidency of Two Holy Mosques Affairs' six pillars for serving and umrah pilgrims, namely:

- To enhance the honour of and pride in serving pilgrims

- To emphasise the message of the Two Holy Mosques through broadcasting via the Manarat Al-Haramain platform

- To provide services of the highest quality to pilgrims in line with the current status of the coronavirus pandemic

- To provide humanitarian services and health instructions to pilgrims in cooperation with the relevant authorities

- Engage print, audio and visual media and the new media to cover the campaign's programmes and activities, including highlighting the efforts in serving the guests of Al-Rahman.

- Electronically archiving related content to be accessible to Muslims.

The SPA further reported that the KSA President General of the Grand Mosque and Prophet's Mosque Affairs Sheikh Dr Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz Al-Sudais has directed that the Arafat Day sermon will be translated into 10 languages, up from five previously.

The languages are English, Malay, Urdu, Persian, French, Chinese, Turkish, Russian, Hausa and Bengali. The sermon will be available on the Arafat Sermon app as well as on the Manarat Al-Haramain platform.

This is the third consecutive year where the sermon has been translated.

Meanwhile the KSA Ministry of Health has prepared various health facilities to support the Hajj in a time of COVID-19, the SPA said. These include Mina Al Wadi Hospital, 29 health centres in Arafat, field hospitals, mobile clinics, as well as six well-equipped ambulances, and three clinics at pilgrims' residences.

Hajj security has been tightened as well, covering organisational, security, humanitarian and health themes. According to the SPA, the Hajj Security Force will control traffic to and from the Grand Mosque over the southern and western premises. There will also be designated routes for the circumambulation of the Ka'abah (الكعبة‎) and s'ai (سَعِي‎) areas, two venues where Hajj rituals will be conducted.