Saudi authorities complete transport of pilgrims to Mina

The Saudi authorities announced Sunday the success of the plan to transport pilgrims to Mina to prepare themselves of the climax of the Hajj, or pilgrimage, when they ascend Mount Arafat on Monday. "The transportation of pilgrims to Mina valley has completed successful," Head of the Traffic Department at the Saudi Ministry of Interior Major General Abdulrahman Al-Muqbel said in a joint press conference with several senior officials. Al-Muqbel, also Deputy Head of Hajj Security Forces, added that the transportation has gone smoothly. "Over 20,000 buses transported pilgrims to Mina as of Sunday's afternoon." Al-Muqbel pointed out that the buses and holy shrines train will take pilgrims after fajr (dawn) prayers Monday to ascend Mount Arafat. For his part, Spokesman of Interior Ministry Major General Mansour Al-Turki stated that traffic police were able to control the traffic movement and organize it to facilitate the transportation of pilgrims. Al-Turki noted the positive impact of the recent regulations strictly forbidding unlicensed agencies to work during Hajj season to bar illegal national pilgrims from performing the Hajj. He said Saudi citizens and expatriates complied with instructions and aware that the reduction of numbers of pilgrims within Saudi Arabia and abroad goes directly to the benefit of pilgrims. Contrary to last year, when numbers of illegal pilgrims flocked to Hajj areas, this year the traffic went smooth and other services have reached their destinations in record times, Al-Turki said. Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Khaled Marghalani said the health situation of pilgrims was quite satisfying as no epidemic or quarantine cases reported and no coronavirus case recorded. Over a week before the start of the Hajj, 232 cardiac surgeries, 44 Castro operations, 11 open heart surgeries, 737 kidney dialysis, and six deliveries have been conducted for male and female pilgrims at the state hospitals, Marghalani said. He unveiled that health services have been offered to as many as 270,000 pilgrims who visited hospitals and medical clinics in Makkah and Al-Madinah. Over 1,682 pilgrims were hospitalized, with most of them discharged and only 389 are still receiving treatment, Marghalani said. He stressed that the Health Ministry managed to transport patients by ambulances from place to place so that no sick pilgrim would miss any of his Hajj rituals. Nearly two million pilgrims embarked on their slow and steady trek to Mina on Sunday night in the first leg of their five-day journey. On Monday morning, the pilgrims will ascend the Mount Arafat, the main pillar of the Hajj journey. The pilgrims then will return to Mina after spending the night in Muzdalifah. They will take part in the symbolic stoning of the devil at Jamrat Al-Aqaba and sacrifice livestock to mark the four-day Eid Al-Adha, Muslims grand feast, which starts Tuesday. Muslims from around the world pour to Makkah every year to perform hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam. Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can financially afford the trip must perform Hajj at least once in a lifetime