AMMAN — Secretary General
of the
Jordan Insurance Federation Fawaz
Al-Ajlouni said, in statements to Al Rai newspaper, that medical tourism to
Jordan was inexistent during the first year of
COVID-19, because of the border closures
and travel bans.
اضافة اعلان
The sector picked up during the
second year of the pandemic, as the countries decision to reopen, but only
slightly, between 25-30 percent.
The
decline is not due entirely to the pandemic, he said, mentioning competing
markets, but COVID-19 is the main reason as Jordan continued to take
precautionary measures, especially in the case of those coming for treatment to
private hospitals, which worry that patients seeking treatment might get
infected.
Epidemiology
expert and former secretary-general of the
Ministry ofHealth Abdul Rahman Al-Maani told Al Rai that medical tourism is an economic catalyst
for Jordan that must be revitalized. Data and statistics concerning
associations and bodies involved in medical tourism showed an increase during
2019 in the number of patients coming from abroad for treatment to Jordan, with
their number reaching about 34,000 until July that year.
Al-Maani
said that COVID-19 affected all aspects of
economy, including
medical tourism,
which was greatly affected. He said that medical tourism in
Jordan has been greatly affected, registering an 85 percent slide since the
outbreak of COVID-19, even though it had created the Salamtak platform for those
wishing to be hospitalized in Jordan from neighboring countries. The platform
would help them register with the Ministry of Tourism and private hospitals,
where the turnout was modest at the beginning; only about 650 patients came to
Jordan to receive treatment.
Read more National news
.jpg)
.jpg)
