Israel’s Health Ministry stated on Wednesday that they support allowing non-Israeli citizens from “green states” into Israel without being tested for the coronavirus or being required to quarantine upon arrival.
Health Ministry Deputy Director-General Prof. Itamar Grotto said at a discussion at the Knesset State Control Committee on Wednesday that the Health Ministry is on its way to approving a plan to open Israel’s skies.
“We won’t demand tests and quarantine from those who arrive from ‘green states,’ Grotto said. The policy is set to go into effect on August 16, Grotto said.
According to a report by Channel 12 News, the “green states” on Israel’s list are: Canada, Greece, Cyprus, Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Lichtenstein, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ireland, South Korea, Japan, and New Zealand.
The fact that Israel is currently considered a “red state” and tourists may be reluctant to come was not mentioned.
“The skies should be opened as quickly as possible,” said Tourism Minister Asaf Zamir. “The need to test passengers will be with us for years so there’s no question that a major investment in infrastructure and medical services at Ben-Gurion Airport is necessary, including establishing labs, tests, and regulatory procedures.”
However, Shmuel Zakai, the executive director of Ben-Gurion Airport, did not seem to be that excited by the news, saying that the only way to ensure passengers aren’t carrying the coronavirus is to test them and according to the Health Ministry, not only do tests have a high error rate but they are a national resource that can’t be wasted on flights.
“As long as that’s the approach, flights won’t be renewed and we’re already past the point of no return,” Zakai claimed. “Maybe it’s worthwhile to include swimming lessons in the core curriculum because that’s the only way Israeli citizens will be able to leave here.”
Israel is formulating a plan to allow passengers into Israel from “red states” as well by establishing a coronavirus testing station at Ben-Gurion with rapid results, eliminating the need for passengers to quarantine.
Israeli researchers are currently carrying out trials for coronavirus tests with rapid results in India.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Here’s the big question: many, many of the visitors to Israel come from New York which has one of the lowest infection rates anywhere… but it is part of the USA which has always had the highest or one of the highest. Do you view New York as green or red and how do they plan to divide the states of the USA which makes up a large percentage of tourism to Israel every year.
Well right now it looks like the USA is not on the green list. So that means it’s red. For them to make New York and New Jersey green that means they’ll have divide up all the countries. I don’t see that happening
How would the State of Israel ban those from Red Zoned US states but not New York? That’d be difficult.