Following a meeting of the coronavirus cabinet on Thursday, it was reported that the ministers had decided that Israelis will be able to visit Bulgaria, Croatia and four islands in Greece without being required to quarantine upon their arrival home.

Cyprus may be included on the list as well but the cabinet has not yet made a final decision regarding it.

The transportation ministry submitted a list of countries with low or relatively low rates of coronavirus infections for the cabinet to review and potentially approve for visits without quarantine requirements upon return but the cabinet nixed much of the list. The countries that were not approved were Austria, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Jordan, Latvia and Lithuania.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏ suddenly left the meeting and missed the final vote on the countries’ approval, saying he had to leave for “a matter of national interest.” Shortly later, the historic agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates was announced.

According to news reports, before Netanyahu left, the cabinet decided that a national lockdown may be imposed if the infection rate doesn’t decrease within a week.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)