The Uzbekistani government has so much faith in its newly enhanced sanitation regime that it is willing to pay individuals $3,000 USD if they travel to the country and contract COVID-19.

“We want to reassure tourists they can come to Uzbekistan,” Sophie Ibbotson, Uzbekistan’s tourism ambassador to the UK, said in a statement. “The government is so confident that the new safety and hygiene measures being implemented across the tourism sector will protect tourists from COVID-19 that the president is prepared to put money where his mouth is. If you get COVID-19 on holiday in Uzbekistan, we will compensate you.”

Domestic travel within Uzbekistan resumed on 1 June for those traveling between no- or low-infection “green” and “yellow” zones. International flights restart this month, with arrivals from low-risk countries such as China, Israel, Japan, and South Korea able to enter without restrictions. Arrivals from the EU and UK are permitted to enter so long as they spend 14 days in self-isolation, but this requirement will be waived as soon as these countries get their own infection rates under control and arrivals no longer pose a public health threat to Uzbekistan, reads the statement.

Currently, Uzbekistan has recorded only 84 coronavirus-related deaths amongst a population of 33 million.

(Header credits: Wikimedia Commons)