Saudi Arabia made a big decision on Saturday in which they decided that they would provide a permit to one million Muslims from inside and outside the country in order to participate in this year’s haj.

The Ministry of Haj and Umrah “has authorised one million foreign and domestic pilgrims to perform the hajj in 2022,” it said in a statement.

This is only allowed to those who are under 65 years old and have taken both doses of COVID-19 vaccinations, which the Saudi Ministry approves of Health, as per the Saturday statement.

This decision is taken because the adminstration need to ensure pilgrims’ safety “while ensuring that the maximum number of Muslims worldwide can perform the haj.

A specific number of pilgrims from each specific country will be only allowed to make the pilgrimage based on allocated quotas.

Those passengers and pilgrims coming from outside Saudi Arabia need to submit a negative COVID-19 PCR result from a test taken within 72 hours of travel.

However, since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020, Saudi officials only gave a permit to 1000 pilgrims, and they are the only ones who can take part. In 2021, they increased the number, but the condition applies that only vaccinated passengers and pilgrims are allowed, and 60,000 were allowed who were chosen by a lottery.

Before the outbreak, some 2.5 million people travelled to Saudi Arabia for Hajj every year.

The five-day religious pilgrimage will also start in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, and the surrounding territories of western Saudi Arabia. This year it is planned to place in July.

Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik 🕋

We’re honored to welcome one million pilgrims in Hajj 2022 pic.twitter.com/YblHozXar2

— Ministry of Hajj and Umrah (@MoHU_En) April 9, 2022

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Saudi Arabia declared another COVID-19-related fatality, bringing deaths to 9,054. Saudi health officials confirmed 114 additional instances recorded throughout the Kingdom in the preceding 24 hours, bringing the number of persons infected with the illness to 751,518.

Further, 88 of the individuals are still in critical condition. Three hundred three people have healed from COVID-19, increasing the overall number of recoveries in the Kingdom to 736,316, according to the Health Ministry.