Rich Book Covid-19 Jabs Abroad to Skip U.K. Wait, Telegraph Says

(Bloomberg) -- Super-rich and high-profile Britons are increasingly opting to travel abroad to get a private vaccine against the coronavirus, the Telegraph reported on Saturday.

Bookings for jabs in the United Arab Emirates, combined with beach breaks between the two doses of the vaccine, are becoming popular with private concierge service Knightsbridge Circle, which charges 25,000 pounds ($33,900) a year and lists royals, celebrities and business executives among its clients.

“Dubai and Abu Dhabi are already offering private appointments for the Pfizer vaccine,” Stuart McNeill, who runs the service, told the newspaper. “About 20% of our clients have opted to fly out and get it.”

The option allows the super-wealthy to get earlier inoculation as Britain currently only offers vaccines to people aged 80 and over, people who live or work in care homes and health and social-care workers at high risk.

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While travel is banned as the U.K. is in its third strict lockdown in an attempt to curb a rapid increase in infections and deaths, business trips are allowed. The wealthy can use that as a pretext, the newspaper said.

Russia, which is rolling out its Sputnik V vaccine, is another destination for travel to get a jab. U.S. film director Oliver Stone, who won an Academy Award as a writer for Midnight Express, received a coronavirus shot in Russia in early December.

The AstraZeneca Plc and University of Oxford vaccine could be available for purchase in India as soon as March, according to the report.