By Ado Hassan, Sokoto
Statistics released by the Saudi Arabia Directorate General of Passports, has confirmed the arrival of no fewer than 1.705 million pilgrims from across the world have so far into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to perform this year’s Hajj.
Similarly, no less than 91,000 Nigerian pilgrims are already in Saudi Arabia to perform the 2017 Hajj exercise, according to Statistics by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria ( NAHCON).
Reports quoted the Saudi Gazette Newspaper as saying that, out of the number, 1.602 million pilgrims came by air, 87,685 by land and 14,835 by sea.
The number of pilgrims who have arrived the Kingdom for the 1438AH Hajj exercise had an increase of 367,095 compared to 4th e number of arrivals in the same period in 1437AH,or about 32 per cent.
Meanwhile, more than 51,000 personnel belonging to 22 governmental bodies are currently serving pilgrims round the clock in Makkah, Madinah and the Holy sites, statistics say.
According to the General Statistics Authority said in a statement that, the services cover governorates and municipal activities.
They include control and inspiration, electricity and water, as well as religious, media and illumination, in addition to other support services.
These support services don’t include health, transport, communication and information technology services.
In the same vein, it was gathered that the General Security Aviation Command had conducted a number of aerial inspection on the movement of pilgrims between Madinah and Makkah.
Aerial monitoring was intensified between the two Holy cities,qhike the seasonal aerial command centre has been activated.
One of the main tasks of the aerial view is to provide logistics support to the ground team.
Meanwhile, over 16,000 units of blood and blood products are available to treat the pilgrims.
According to the Saudi Ministry of Health, the units of blood are free from infectious diseases.
The relevant distribution plans for Makkah and Madinah has been created in accordance with international standards, beds capacities of hospitals and intensive care unit,in addition to past experiences.
Nine hospitals in Makkah,four in Arafat and four in Mina, have been equipped with state-of-the-art equipment,having recruited highly skilled technicians and experts in the fields of laboratories, as well as blood banks.
Seventeen regions and governorates, as well as 27 partners from the public, private and military sectors have also exerted efforts to collect the 16,000 units of blood.
Accordingly, two cars and five teams had been deployed to facilitate the blood donation process.
This is in addition to ambulances, equipped with blood transfusion equipment which can respond to emergency cases.
