Adults, children need to get vaccinated at least 10 days before arriving in Saudi Arabia
Umrah pilgrims throng the courtyard around the Holy Kaaba at the Grand Mosque.
Kuwait has announced new health regulations for people travelling from the country to Saudi Arabia to perform the Umrah or minor pilgrimage in Mecca or visiting the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.
The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health said the new rules are based on instructions issued by Saudi authorities.
The ministry said that all travellers – adults and children aged one year or older – are required to receive the quadrivalent Neisseria meningitidis vaccine (ACYW-135).
Such passengers must obtain a certificate proving that the vaccine was received at least 10 days before arriving in Saudi Arabia.
The ministry said the vaccine is available at all preventive health centres and traveller clinics across Kuwait during official working hours.
Millions of Muslims across the globe head to Saudi Arabia, Islam’s birthplace, to perform the Umrah in the Grand Mosque and the annual Hajj pilgrimage in and around Mecca. They also go to the Prophet’s Mosque, Islam’s second holiest place in Medina.
Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait sealed an agreement on arrangements for pilgrims coming from Kuwait for this year’s Hajj.
Saudi Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfiq Al Rabiah and Kuwaiti Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Mohammed Al Wasmi signed the pact in the Saudi port city of Jeddah.
The agreement focuses on concluding contracts for transportation, and accommodation services, confirming commitment to all instructions regulating Hajj affairs in Saudi Arabia as well as educating the would-be pilgrims about pilgrimage-related procedures.
Under the accord, the Hajj Affairs Office in Kuwait and organisers of the pilgrimage trips are obligated to make people there aware of the Saudi rule that Hajj is not permissible without a permit. The organisers must desist from enabling unregulated pilgrims from entering the holy sites, sheltering or transporting them.
Hajj is one of Islam’s five obligatory duties. Muslims, who can physically and financially afford Hajj, have to perform it at least once in a lifetime.
