Russia's Republic of Bashkortostan will start issuing special passports to citizens with coronavirus antibodies in order to begin partially lifting restriction measures and motivate people to get inoculated
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2021) Russia's Republic of Bashkortostan will start issuing special passports to citizens with coronavirus antibodies in order to begin partially lifting restriction measures and motivate people to get inoculated.
Head of the Republic Radiy Khabirov explained the decision at a government meeting in the republic's capital, Ufa.
"We are introducing a new project related to the fight against the coronavirus called Anti-COVID passports of Bashkortostan. Secondly, the passport will be held by those who have had the disease, have antibodies, and who have been vaccinated," Khabirov told his cabinet.
In a post on his official Facebook page, Khabirov laid out a detailed plan of how and where citizens can receive their passports. According to the government's timetable, the project must be operational in early February. The passports will be issued automatically to those who show coronavirus antibodies in blood tests.
"This solves a number of problems. If our residents are 65 and over, or they have been ill and have antibodies, or they were vaccinated, then why do we keep them at home to suffer? This is just one example. This is a certain incentive for people to get vaccinated," Khabirov said during the meeting, broadcast live on the government's official YouTube channel.
Khabirov also said that public spaces can lift caps on admittance and other restrictions, saying "people will gradually begin to return to ordinary life, which we have all missed."
The republic's head, however, maintained that the mandatory face mask rule will remain in place until the end of the year regardless of COVID-19 immunity.
According to the Bashkir Health Ministry's data, the republic has registered just over 22,000 COVID-19 cases and 166 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
The issue of gradual lifting of measures for people with antibodies has sparked debate in many countries where vaccination campaigns are underway. The German government, for instance, has refused to adopt such policies arguing that it would breed social inequality. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, in an interview published over the weekend, argued that the inequality would exist only in the transitional period out of the pandemic.
