A Health Ministry representative revealed on Thursday that a critically ill coronavirus patient was flown from Uman to Israel.
In a discussion in the Knesset’s Economics Committee, Dr. Asher Salmon, director of the Health Ministry’s International Relations Department, spoke about the coronavirus issue in Uman.
“Infections were already confirmed in Uman and last night a critically ill Israeli was evacuated,” Dr. Salmon said. “There are already 7,000 Jews there and the number is expected to reach 20,000.”
In the course of the discussion, the committee approved tightening the supervision of Israelis traveling to Ukraine as well as requiring both vaccinated and recovered Israelis to present negative coronavirus tests prior to returning to Israel.
Earlier this week, a Kikar H’Shabbat report revealed that two Breslover chassidim in Uman tested positive for COVID, a man in his 30s and his 14-year-old son.
Breslover leaders have called on all travelers to Uman to purchases travel insurance policies since every year, there are cases of people with medical issues being flown to Israel from Uman and whoever lacks travel insurance is saddled with steep medical costs.
This isn’t the first time in recent days that an Israeli was flown on a rescue flight to Israel. In August, about 30 Israelis on a group trip to Iceland contracted COVID. After three of them took a turn for the worse, they were flown to Israel on a rescue flight arranged by Harel Insurance to receive medical treatment in Israeli hospitals.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
Perhaps instead of incurring the high cost of going to Uman(or Iceland for that matter), we stay home and give more tzedaka. Tzedaka tatzil Memaves. These trips are having the opposite effect.
There are often sad stories of Israelis getting sick while travelling. Costs can be extreme and there should be a requirement of any traveler leaving the Country to have an insurance document.