Vaccine Tourism: From Russia with Love
Moscow is calling worldwide all those who are waiting for Covid-19 vaccine and are not able to get the jab because of short supply. India is special priority number one. Many travel agencies are offering a two-in-one—vaccination and vacation—trip to Russia. Tourists can take the Russian-made Sputnik-V vaccine and roam around the country. It first began with the tiny Republic of San Marino in southern Europe that recently launched “vaccine tourism” with Sputnik-V as the vaccine on offer.
A Delhi-based travel agency is reportedly offering a tour package, priced at about Rs 2.4 lakh per person for a 24-day stay at 3-star hotels in Moscow (20 days) and St Petersburg (4 days) and it includes sightseeing and guided tours. They will be taken to Moscow for two shots of the vaccine.The package includes the cost of air tickets on Aeroflot flights from Delhi, breakfast, dinner and a few days of local sightseeing. The visa fee of Rs 10,000 is excluded.
Travel agents say that Indians can travel to Russia after getting an RT-PCR test done. The first shot of Sputnik-V vaccine will be administered on the day of arrival in Moscow. The travel industry claims that the first batch of a group of 30 people left on 15 May and have received their shot already, and that the second batch, mostly Delhi-based doctors, will be leaving at the end of this month.
“Vaccine tourism to Russia is an attraction for those who are feeling stressed in India due to lockdowns and feeling disturbed on watching thousands of deaths,” a travel agent told this paper, adding that “a visit abroad can cheer them up–and free vaccination is the cherry on the cake.”
Medical Insurance Firms’ false claim
Medical insurance companies have started claiming that Covid-19 pandemic has made their balance sheets negative! That is despite the fact that they have not reimbursed 90% of the patients, who could not avail of hospital treatment, oxygen, ventilators and had to recuperate at home. Despite having a health insurance cover, they have to pay from their pockets for expensive home treatment. There is a sharp spurt in health insurance business since the beginning of the pandemic. The ground reality is that the growing concern over the Covid-19 pandemic has been pushing people increasingly towards taking health insurance. Health insurance companies are doing billions of dollars’ business annually.
But all these medical health insurance companies won’t tell you one thing: You will be reimbursed—as per rules—only if you are admitted to hospital. There will be no home treatment reimbursement, even if you are a Covid-19 or any serious illness patient. So, please read carefully between the lines.
Last Sunday, we quoted a former actor and later an advertising veteran for 45 years, Ravi Aurora’s heart-touching letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that reflects the ordeal of a large number of people. “These medical insurance companies, especially of the government, are more worried about their balance sheets, rather than worrying about and taking care of the sick,” says Aurora, adding that “for them, money is God…they are insensitive.”
A former senior official of a public sector general insurance company, Anil Dhingra, told this paper that “these are extraordinary difficult times and we must change rules to fight the pandemic and help the people at this hour of the need”.
Rahul may intervene in Punjab ‘Congress Pandemic’
Amid the Covid-19 crisis, the Congress high command is worried about “the pandemic situation’ in the Punjab party unit. A tug-of-war between Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and his opponents in the party, including some Ministers and MLAs, is causing worry to the party’s central leadership as Assembly polls are early next year.
Sources told The Sunday Guardian that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi may intervene soon to end the crisis by holding one-on-one meetings with state ministers, MLAs and MPs over the next few days.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi is reported to be in constant touch with the CM and some state party leaders. The party high command has been carefully listening to leaders of the CM’s camp and his opponents who are questioning him over the delay in giving justice to the families of the police firing incidents. The adverse high court judgment on the Kotkapura police firing cases had created a crisis in the party.
The Congress high command is believed to be working out a formula to make the CM take on the perpetrators of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and police firing cases. The initial plan of the high command to send an emissary to Punjab to interact with party leaders has not materialised. The state affairs in charge and AICC general secretary Harish Rawat had tried to bury the differences between the CM and chief dissident leader, Navjot Singh Sidhu, MLA, but it did not work.
The CM and Sidhu had met over high tea and Sidhu was offered a Cabinet berth. But all this failed to bring peace within the state Congress.