One by one – the Senate has just passed a bill that provides for the introduction of the Polish Tourist Voucher for pensioners in the amount of PLN 500. Seniors could benefit from this assistance from September 1 this year. until March 31, 2022, the voucher would work similarly to a tourist voucher for children, which can be used today, among others for accommodation in hotels and boarding houses or for paying for organized trips. The bill went to the Sejm, but the government torpedoed the Senate’s initiative. Arguments? The costs of the entire operation (estimated at PLN 1.5 billion) and the fact that seniors … will not be able to use the voucher because of the pandemic. The most surprising is the opinion of the Ministry of Finance. We got to a document on this.
Will the restrictions come back by mutation? Health Minister translates
Pandemic. The minister talks about restrictions
“Doubts are raised as to the legitimacy of extending the scope of beneficiaries of the Polish Tourist Voucher to the group of old-age and disability pensioners, in a situation where the interest in the benefit by this group in the period from September 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022 will be uncertain, as this interest will depend on the situation epidemiological, which may change in the autumn and winter period, writes Deputy Minister Piotr Patkowski in his opinion to the Senate’s initiative. And he adds: “As a result, the use of the Polish Tourist Voucher by a group of retirees and pensioners may be impossible, due to the existing sanitary and epidemiological restrictions.”
This is the first voice from the government that explicitly speaks of the possibility of a return to lockdown and severe restrictions. From the words of the deputy minister, it is clear: it is impossible to exclude the closure of hotels and guesthouses and the introduction of other restrictions affecting the tourism industry – since the redemption of the voucher “may be impossible”.
Delta mutation. Should we be afraid?
Pandemic. The delta mutation is haunting Europe
The government only loosened the restrictions introduced at the end of October 2020 a few days ago. Now more people can stay in hotels and boarding houses, enter the water park or amusement. The restrictions still exist here and there, but they are not bothersome.
The above rules – as the Minister of Health Adam Niedzielski assures – are to apply until the number of infections starts to rise again. However – as you know – Europe is haunted by the more infectious delta variant. In Great Britain it is the cause of the highest number of infections since February. Only on Saturday there were over 18 thousand. new cases. The first two victims of this coronavirus mutation have just been recorded in France. Our government officially says it is monitoring the matter. However, the growing number of delta infections is starting to bother the government. This week, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is to talk about it with experts at the meeting of the Government Crisis Management Team.
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