Israel’s government on Monday morning approved a travel ban on several countries, including the United States. The decision will come into effect at midnight on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. In addition to the US, the other countries added to the list of “red countries” includes Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Canada, Switzerland and Turkey. The decision must be approved by the Knesset Constitution, Justice and Law Committee, which was meeting later on Monday for its vote.
Under the current coronavirus restrictions, Israelis are not permitted to travel to red countries; Israelis returning from red countries will require quarantine for at least one week.
Other countries currently appearing on the red list include: the United Kingdom, Denmark, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Finland, France, Sweden and several African nations. Israel closed its borders to most foreigners in late November, shortly after the discovery of the omicron COVID-19 variant.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in a televised statement on Sunday night announced that the fifth wave of the coronavirus, which he called the “omicron wave,” has hit Israel. He called on Israelis to vaccinate their children as fast as possible in order to “buy more time” against the spread of the highly contagious variant.
“Our goal is to overcome this wave while continuing economic activity and education as much as we can. The way is to delay the rate of spread as much as possible and use the time we are buying to vaccinate the children of Israel as quickly as possible,” he said.