Pilgrims say goodbye to Mecca and must be quarantined after the "hajj"

The last pilgrims of the hundreds of lucky ones who were able to make the pilgrimage to Mecca or "hajj" this year are leaving the Muslim holy city this Sunday and will have to undergo a quarantine in their homes as a precaution against possible contagion from COVID-19.

Due to the global pandemic, the number of pilgrims this year was significantly reduced, from more than two million worldwide in 2019 to approximately one thousand people and residents of Saudi Arabia alone (30% Saudis and 70% of other nationalities).

This Sunday the pilgrims concluded the rituals that began on Wednesday and culminated on Friday with the feast of Eid al-Adha or Sacrifice and the throwing of small stones against columns that symbolize the temptations of the devil.

Since Friday, the faithful have repeated some of the rituals in the various holy places in and around Mecca, and have bid farewell by circling the "Kaaba", a cube in which a black stone that Muslims consider to be a piece of paradise is guarded.

The “Kaaba” is located in the courtyard of the Great Mosque of Mecca, where the pilgrims began the "hajj" by going around it seven times, and whose facilities have been cleaned and sterilized ten times a day as a preventive measure against the coronavirus.

According to local authorities, more than 3,500 workers have carried out the cleaning work and 54,000 litres of disinfectant have been used daily, as well as 95 machines and cleaning instruments.

Pilgrims will undergo a medical check-up before leaving Mecca and will then have to be isolated in their homes in Saudi Arabia for the mandatory quarantine.

Before the ritual, they also had to be isolated in hotels in Mecca and monitored by the authorities to prevent any outbreak of coronavirus among the participants, whose exact number has not yet been officially released.