Saudi Gazette report
Makkah — As many as 1,000 pilgrims arrived in Makkah as the first batch of the guests of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for Haj and Umrah Program being supervised by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance.
Undersecretary of the Ministry for Islamic Affairs, who is also the supervisor of the General Secretariat of the hosting program Abdullah Al-Mudlej welcomed the guests and congratulated them on the safe arrival.
The guests later visited the King Abdulaziz Complex for Holy Kaaba Kiswa factory. They were briefed on the stages of Kiswa manufacturing process, raw materials used and the inception of the complex.
They also visited the Two Holy Mosques Architecture Exhibition and toured the halls of the exhibition.
The guests praised the Kingdom’s pioneering role in serving Islam and Muslims.
A total of 1,486,958 pilgrims had arrived in the Kingdom till Monday, according to the Directorate General for Passports.
A total of 797,794 pilgrims had arrived in Madinah till Monday, according to daily statistics issued by the Unit of Media and Social Communication in Haj Committee in Madinah.
The statistics reported that 186,041 pilgrims remained in Madinah while the rest proceeded to Makkah in preparation for Haj which starts on Aug. 19.
The Ministry of Haj and Umrah on Tuesday started disseminating awareness messages for pilgrims in the Arabic, English, French, Russian, Chinese and Persian languages.
The first message explained that a permit for Haj is given to individuals once every five years. The second message gave the toll free phone number 8004304444 allocated to answer inquiries of pilgrims around the clock.
The Ministry of Health inaugurated a new website to provide guidelines to pilgrims in many languages on health-related issues, especially about food poisoning and sunstroke.
The ministry also activated a quick interventional hotline to rescue victims of heart attack and brain stroke at holy site hospitals. The hotline enables doctors and specialists in all hospitals to discuss the cases and evaluate emergency measures. The hotline works around the clock during Haj.
