Against the backdrop of a rising Covid-19 caseload and the invention of extra contagious strains of the illness, nations around the globe — together with India — are presently readying or are within the midst of intense nationwide vaccination drives. In the meantime, journey companies have already began to launch ‘vaccine tourism’ packages for rich travellers to leap the queue in their very own nation and get the jab overseas. A well-liked vacation spot on everybody’s thoughts? Dubai.
According to the 2020-21 Medical Tourism Index (MTI), Dubai is sixth within the record of the world’s high ten medical tourism locations. After the nation introduced that it had registered each Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine in addition to China’s Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use, many overseas nationals started to wonder if they might have the ability to journey to the town for the vaccine.
However, as of now the UAE doesn’t provide vaccines to overseas vacationers. So far, the Middle Eastern nation, which is providing the vaccine freed from value to all residents, has been in a position to inoculate 8 per cent of its inhabitants and plans to cowl a minimum of half of its residents throughout the first quarter of this yr, Bloomberg reported.
Dubai, the UAE’s business capital, launched a Covid-19 vaccination drive for all its residents in December final yr. The first spherical targets “priority groups” similar to frontline staff, individuals over the age of 60 and people affected by persistent medical circumstances and disabilities.
“We are targeting to vaccinate approximately 70% of the population of Dubai by the end of 2021. We want to reach the herd immunity that is required,” Farida al-Khaja, chairwoman of Dubai’s steering committee for COVID-19 vaccinations, advised Reuters. She added that the second part of the vaccination drive is more likely to begin in April, which can be open to all residents.
Dubai was one of many first Gulf emirates to ease restrictions and open its borders for worldwide vacationers, together with medical vacationers, final yr. In the Middle East, the broader tourism business depends on medical tourism to an ideal extent, significantly whereas grappling with the Covid-induced hunch, in line with Colliers worldwide.
Private journey companies are actually taking a look at the opportunity of selling vaccine tourism to assist reboot the tourism business. Soon after the United Kingdom and the United States permitted vaccines for emergency use, some companies in India began to supply Covid vaccine vacationer packages, which might permit a traveller to fly into a rustic providing a vaccine, take the jab and return residence after a compulsory quarantine interval spent at a lodge.
In a WhatsApp message that went viral late final yr, Mumbai-based Gem Tours & Travels marketed its Covid vaccine bundle for choose “VVIP clients”. For Rs 1,74,999, a traveller may fly all the way down to New York for a three-night keep and obtain the vaccine earlier than returning to India.
But Pfizer representatives had been fast to state that the corporate didn’t have plans to produce the vaccine to the non-public medical sector. “I can say clearly and confidently that there are no plans to supply the private sector for the foreseeable future — no chance at all,” Pfizer UK’s nation supervisor Ben OsBorn advised the Financial Times in December.
Most nations have prioritised inoculating their very own residents throughout the first few phases of their Covid-19 vaccination drives. Meanwhile, within the US’ South Florida, well being authorities are dealing with widespread backlash after a number of overseas vacationers and non-residents had been receiving the vaccine, whereas residents had been nonetheless ready their flip.
