Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
People who will get the covid vaccine jab will be given ‘vaccine passport.’ The announcement comes from the Russian health minister Mikhail Murashko. This will come with multiple benefits for those vaccinated.
He said from January 2021 all Russians who have been vaccinated will receive a so-called “vaccine passport”. The document will be available through the government’s official portal and might in time be used to carry information about other vaccinations.
Moscow city authorities say owners of “vaccine passports” will see real benefits. For example, those eligible for free travel on city’s public transport (students, under 18s) who have been vaccinated will have their free travel cards unblocked.
So far, Russians can be vaccinated against Covid-19 only with the country’s own Sputnik V vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya Research Centre. Alexander Ginzburg, the director of Gamaleya, said that introducing this type of document was the right thing to do.
The aim is that Covid passports when introduced at the start of the vaccination campaign, will give every person proof of having had the jab.
Kirill Dmitriev who heads Russia’s Direct Investment Fund, a state finance body behind Gamaleya, believes in the new year vaccine passports will become common not only in Russia but all over the world. Russia started a mass vaccination campaign in early December.
Meanwhile in the UK prime minister has asked people to remain at home for the new year as the UK needs to “redouble our efforts to contain the virus.” The PM says he is confident “things will be very much better” by Easter – 5 April.
The UK has approved the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and manufactured by AstraZeneca. The health secretary says three quarters of the population of England is now in tier four.
