Saudi Arabia Reports Five Heat Exhaustion Cases Among Pilgrims, Urges Precautions Amid Soaring Temperatures
All those affected received immediate medical attention and are currently in a stable condition, according to the ministry of health, which added that health teams were on high alert to respond swiftly to similar cases as part of the Kingdom's commitment to safeguarding the health and safety of pilgrims.
The country's National Center for Meteorology has forecast hot to extremely hot weather conditions at the holy sites during this year's Hajj season.
According to the center, maximum temperatures are expected to range between 40°C and 47°C, while minimum temperatures will vary between 27°C and 32°C. Humidity levels are projected to fluctuate between 15 percent and 60 percent.
In a post on its X account, the ministry urged pilgrims to stay hydrated, avoid prolonged exposure to direct sunlight, and follow official health guidelines, such as using shaded walkways, wearing appropriate protective gear, and seeking help at the first signs of fatigue.
'If not treated promptly, heat exhaustion can escalate to heat stroke within 10-15 minutes — a life-threatening medical emergency,' the post stated.
The ministry also advised pilgrims who experience heat exhaustion symptoms to begin immediate cooling measures, such as washing their hands, faces and necks with cold water and moving to a cooler area, as well as drinking plenty of cold water to rehydrate.
In its post, the ministry identified headache, excessive sweating, nausea, dizziness, and severe thirst as key clinical symptoms of heat exhaustion.
Multilingual awareness campaigns have been launched, and field preparedness has been reinforced, particularly in response to seasonal heat risks.
The ministry had announced the health sector's readiness to receive pilgrims, revealing a 60 percent increase in bed capacity compared with last year.
Fahad Al-Jalajel, the minister of health, recently confirmed the deployment of over 50,000 medical and technical personnel to serve pilgrims and emphasized the stability of the health situation, with no reported outbreaks or epidemics, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
'Health efforts began early in pilgrims' homelands by analyzing international health risks and issuing clear health requirements, including vaccinations against yellow fever, meningitis, polio, COVID-19, and influenza,' SPA reported, citing Al-Jalajel.
The minister underscored the role of the health certificate as the first line of defense during the Hajj season, noting that the Kingdom's health system launched its services with the arrival of the first Makkah Route Initiative flight.
As part of the Kingdom's comprehensive preparations, 14 land, air, and sea ports have been fully equipped, delivering more than 50,000 health services so far, including 140 surgical procedures, 65 cardiac catheterizations, and six open-heart surgeries, the minister said.
To combat heatstroke risks, Al-Jalajel announced a series of measures in coordination with the Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites. These include planting more than 10,000 trees, installing 400 additional water coolers and misting fans, and expanding shaded pedestrian pathways to protect pilgrims from extreme heat.
The ministry of health has also intensified awareness efforts through multilingual campaigns, stationing field teams, launching media programs, and organizing medical missions to ensure important health information reaches all pilgrims.
Al-Jalajel further revealed the establishment of a new 200-bed emergency hospital in Mina, developed in collaboration with Kidana Development Co.
In addition, three new field hospitals with more than 1,200 beds have been set up in partnership with the ministries of national guard, defense, and interior.
These were inaugurated 'alongside 71 emergency points, 900 ambulances, 11 evacuation aircraft, and over 7,500 paramedics,' Al-Jalajel told SPA.
The minister urged pilgrims to follow health guidelines and affirmed that the Kingdom's health system is operating at full capacity to ensure a safe and healthy Hajj season for all.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gulf Insider
7 days ago
- Gulf Insider
RFK Jr. Alleges CDC Covered Up Vaccine Risks
It's not every day an active HHS Secretary sits down for 90 minutes straight with Tucker Carlson. But that's exactly what happened, and Kennedy instantly seized Carlson's attention with a chilling story of CDC corruption. He revealed that the health agency buried a 1999 internal study led by researcher Thomas Verstraten, which showed an alarming 1135% increase in autism risk from the hepatitis B vaccine. Kennedy said the researchers were 'shocked' by the findings. So what did they do? They covered it up, according to Kennedy. 'They got rid of all the older children essentially and just had younger children who are too young to be diagnosed [with autism].' RFK Jr. then explained the real reason why your pediatrician will kick you out of their practice for refusing vaccines. 'There's a published article out there now that says that 50% of revenues to most pediatricians come from vaccines.' It's all about the money. The higher the vaccination rate, the bigger the bonus. 'And that's why your pediatrician, if you say I want to go slow on the vaccines… will throw you out of his practice because you're now jeopardizing that bonus structure.' To the claim that the vaccine–autism link has been 'debunked,' Kennedy had a message for Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, and everyone who smugly insists on it. 'None of the vaccines given to children in the first six months of life have ever been studied for autism.' Let that sink in. He went further, revealing that the CDC actually did find a link when they studied the DTaP vaccine. But they dismissed it. Kennedy said they claimed it 'didn't count' because the data came from VAERS—the very system they use to track vaccine injuries. So when the evidence pointed to harm, they simply claimed their own system wasn't reliable enough and took no steps to fix it. The vaccine corruption didn't end there. Kennedy attested that the CDC killed off a vaccine injury reporting system that actually worked—because it worked too well. It showed that 1 in 37 vaccines caused an injury. Tucker was stunned. 'Of all vaccines?' he asked. 'Yeah,' Kennedy confirmed. RFK Jr. explained that the CDC funded a study led by researcher Ross Lazarus. It compared a sophisticated machine-counting system to VAERS. What did they find? VAERS was failing to catch over 99% of vaccine injuries. The new system also revealed that 2.6% of all vaccinations resulted in an injury. So what did the CDC do? They shut it down in 2010. And they're still using VAERS today—even though it's a completely inadequate system. But Kennedy didn't stop at old vaccine scandals. He also broke down Pfizer's own COVID vaccine trial data. That trial showed a 23% higher death rate in the vaccinated group. Pfizer gave 21,720 people the vaccine and 21,728 the placebo. One vaccinated person died of COVID. Two placebo recipients died. They used this tiny difference to claim '100% effective' based on relative risk reduction. But in absolute terms, it took 22,000 vaccinations to save one life. Over six months, 21 vaccinated participants died of all causes, compared to 17 in the placebo group—a 23.5% higher death rate. And then there's vaccine spokesperson Paul Offit, often seen on CNN and other mainstream networks. Kennedy shared an infuriating story about how he literally 'voted himself rich' on the rotavirus vaccine. While serving on the CDC's ACIP committee, Offit voted to add rotavirus vaccination to the childhood schedule—even as he was developing his own competing vaccine. He guaranteed demand for his product. The first approved rotavirus vaccine, RotaShield, was yanked from the market for causing dangerous intussusception. Offit's vaccine, RotaTeq, eventually replaced it. He and his partners later sold their rights to Merck for $186 million. As RFK Jr. said, Offit literally 'voted himself rich.' When Carlson mentioned Fauci, Kennedy revealed how Fauci funded research that helped scientists hide evidence of lab-made viruses. The technique, called 'seamless ligation,' allowed researchers to engineer viruses in a lab without leaving telltale genetic fingerprints. RFK Jr. explained: 'One of his fundees, Ralph Baric, from the University of North Carolina, developed a technique called the seamless ligation technique, which is a technique for hiding the laboratory origins of a manipulated virus.' '… normally if there's a virus manipulated, researchers can look at the DNA sequences and they can say this thing was created in a lab. Ralph Baric had developed a technique that he called the no-see technique and its technical name was seamless ligation, and it was a way of hiding evidence of human tampering.' He called it the exact opposite of what real public health work should be. Carlson cut in, saying, 'That's what you would do if you're creating viruses for biological warfare.' The conversation shifted to Trump, leading to one of the biggest highlights of the entire interview. First, Kennedy explained that Trump chose his cabinet in an unorthodox way: he wanted to see three clips of each candidate performing on TV before considering them for the job. 'One of the things with President Trump is that he really knows how to pick talent… For every one of the positions that he picked, he wanted to see three clips of them performing on TV. He's very conscious of the fact that these people are going to be out selling his program to the public,' Kennedy said. That's when Kennedy ended the interview with a bang, sharing his genuine thoughts about Trump for three straight minutes. It was one of the standout moments of the entire conversation. If you're on the fence about Trump, listen to Kennedy here. It might just change how you see him. 'I had him pegged as a narcissist, when narcissists are incapable of empathy. And he's one of the most empathetic people that I've met,' Kennedy said. 'He's immensely curious, inquisitive, and immensely knowledgeable. He's encyclopedic in certain areas that you wouldn't expect,' he continued. Kennedy added that Trump genuinely cares about soldiers who go to war, citing how Trump 'always talks about the casualties on both sides' of the Russia–Ukraine conflict. 'Whether it's vaccines or Medicaid or Medicare, he's always thinking about how this impacts the little guy. And the Democrats have him pegged as a guy who's sort of sitting in the Cabinet meeting talking about how can we make billionaires richer. He's the opposite of that. He's a genuine populist,' Kennedy said. Here's the clip. Trust me, watching this is better than reading it. There's so much more in this conversation, and it might change the way you think about vaccines forever. For the full picture, watch the entire interview below. Also Read: Why Have Any COVID-19 Vaccines, 2025?
Gulf Insider
27-06-2025
- Gulf Insider
More Fetal Losses Than Expected After Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccination In Israel: Study
A higher-than-expected number of miscarriages and other forms of fetal loss were associated with COVID-19 vaccinations in Israel, a new study has revealed. Researchers found 13 fetal losses—four more than the nine expected—for every 100 pregnant women who received a COVID-19 vaccine during weeks eight to 13 in pregnancy, according to the study, which was published as a preprint on the medRxiv server. Most people in Israel, including pregnant women, received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer did not respond by publication time to a request for comment. The team behind the study includes Retsef Levi, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher who was recently named to the committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines, and Dr. Tracy Hoeg, who works for the Food and Drug Administration. The researchers analyzed electronic health records from Maccabi Healthcare Services, one of four organizations that provide health care to Israelis. They looked at 226,395 pregnancies that occurred between March 1, 2016, and Feb. 28, 2022. The primary analysis looked at fetal loss for pregnant women after dose one or dose three of a COVID-19 vaccine, with fetal loss including miscarriage, abortion, and stillbirth. The researchers came up with an expected number of fetal losses based on a model that drew from data before the COVID-19 pandemic, then compared the expected number of fetal losses with those that occurred from week eight of pregnancy onward. They identified 13,214 fetal losses after the COVID-19 pandemic started, compared with 12,846 fetal losses in the reference period, finding that women who received a COVID-19 vaccine during weeks eight to 13 in pregnancy experienced a higher-than-expected number of fetal losses. 'If you believe this result … every 100 women that you would vaccinate during weeks eight to 13, you are going to see close to four additional fetal losses,' Levi told The Epoch Times. The researchers cautioned that more information is required to say for sure that the vaccines cause fetal losses. They also noted that when they carried out the same analysis for pregnant women who received a COVID-19 vaccine during weeks 14 to 27, the number of fetal losses was lower than expected. An additional analysis of pregnant women who received an influenza vaccine from March 1, 2018, to Feb. 28, 2019, also found a lower-than-expected number of fetal losses. The researchers said those results could stem from what is known as healthy vaccine bias—the data could be skewed because people who receive vaccines are typically healthier than those who do not. Maccabi Healthcare Services did not return an inquiry by publication time. Dr. Yaakov Segal, head of obstetrics and gynecology medicine at the organization, is one of the paper's co-authors. Israel's Ministry of Health and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which encourages pregnant women to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in any trimester, did not respond to requests for comment by publication time. 'Generally, medical advice to pregnant women follows the precautionary principle and is based on sound and careful research,' Josh Guetzkow, researcher with Hebrew University of Jerusalem and another study co-author, told The Epoch Times via email. 'Our study shows just how irresponsible it was for our health authorities to abandon these core principles.' COVID-19 vaccination was recommended for pregnant women in Israel and the United States early in the COVID-19 pandemic, even though the clinical trials for the vaccines excluded pregnant women. Moderna's clinical trial for pregnant women was ultimately terminated, while Pfizer ended its trial early after enrolling just 175 women. The latter found slightly lower COVID-19 incidence among the vaccinated when compared with those who received a placebo. Some observational studies have determined that pregnant women benefit from COVID-19 vaccination. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently narrowed its COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and no longer advises COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy. The new paper was published as a preprint, without peer review. Levi said the paper had been rejected by two journals, and the authors decided that the implications were too important to continue to not release it to the public. Guetzkow said the researchers are going to keep trying to get the paper published by a journal.
Gulf Insider
18-06-2025
- Gulf Insider
Why Have Any COVID-19 Vaccines, 2025?
Five years on, SARS–CoV–2 is a ghost. It's not the beast it was (or was purported to be); yet (as of this last 'flu season') young medical students were still required to get the 'jab.' The current iteration of coronavirus, Omicron, LP.8.1–feels like a cold now, nothing more – moreover, its epitope is not even included in the 'bivalent' Covid vaccine handed out, 2025. Prior to 2003's SARS, coronaviruses were just that: colds, the kind you shook off with soup and sleep. No one demanded shots. No one cared. So why are we still doing this? The numbers, the past, the plain truth say it's hollow—a rule for the sake of rules. Back in 2020, the virus (or the overreaction to it) hit like a storm. Hospitals were packed. People died–350,000 in the US, mostly old, mostly sick – either 'from' or 'with' coronavirus. Kids? They were fine. The American Academy of Pediatrics counted 112 deaths under 18 by December—0.005% of cases; however, those children had problems: diabetes, obesity, and bad lungs. Healthy ones sneezed and moved on. Medical students, in their 20s, were close behind. The CDC pegged that age group's mortality rate at 0.02%–1,200 out of 6 million cases. Two percent landed in hospitals; near zero needed ICUs. There was no real danger for them, 2020 – and beyond. Now it's 2025. The virus hasn't vanished, but it's weak. Immunity—from shots, or from previously having contracted one or another of the Covid variant strains–covers essentially everyone. The current Omicron virus is no monster. It's a nuisance– moreover, it's likely conflated with background 'common cold' coronavirus. Omicron showed up in 2021, spread like crazy, but didn't hit hard. My 2022 piece 'Is it Time to Accept That Omicron is not COVID-19?' noted it was not even genomically and offspring of Covid-19—just another coronavirus, like the ones that give you a runny nose. The current version is much weaker. So what's the reason for medical students' 'booster' mandates' continuation? The shots aren't harmless. Myocarditis hits young guys–1–10 per 100,000 mRNA doses, says a 2022 JAMA study. Medical schools, in particular, should know better. They should move away from anachronistic, lockstep, doctrinaire mandates. In February 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order prohibiting federal funding for educational institutions that mandate Covid–19 vaccines for in–person attendance. Medical schools reliant on federal funds may reconsider these pointless mandates, paeans to outdated orthodoxy.
