Amid warnings that a significant COVID outbreak of “tens of thousands of cases” will hit Israel in less than three weeks, Israel’s Health Ministry on Sunday recommended adding ten additional countries to the “red list” under an Israeli travel ban, including the United States and Canada.
Israelis are banned from traveling to red countries and Israelis who return from countries on the list must quarantine for seven days (rather than three days) upon arriving back in Israel even if they’re fully vaccinated.
The other eight countries on the list are Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.
The countries are expected to be defined as “red” indefinitely, in effect banning Israelis from flying to most countries in the world. Travel to the UK, Denmark, and most countries in Africa have already been banned and travel to a number of other countries will be banned as of Monday, including the United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Finland, France and Sweden.
The recommendation was made by senior health officials at the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday morning and is expected to be approved in a vote by ministers in the coronavirus cabinet later on Sunday. If approved, it will still need to be approved in the Knesset’s Law And Constitution Committee.
If approved, the ban will go into effect on Wednesday, December 22 (the night between Tuesday and Wednesday).
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
14 Responses
Right and smart decision!!! Its unbelievable how much air traffic we have, despite the pandemic….. Israel should keep their borders shut until the situation really improve… See New Zealand or Australia
this virus will never end
Aren’t we lucky to have a bunch of mental midgets running the show? And just think there are some who say ראשית צמיחת גאולתנו to this.
I’m happy to see they’re taking precautions.
According to that map, they’re trusting the statistics from China that everything’s AOK there. How stupid can they get?
Reb Yid: Actually, the covid situation in China is much better than in most of the rest of the world simply because they can literally invoke a form of martial law to shut down and isolate entire neighborhoods and cities at the first sign of significant new infections. They have a high rate of vaccination and mask use was culturally accepted even before Covid. This information comes not from the government of China but a number of U.S. and European banks and law firms who have a significant presence in major cities. Its quite possible the situation is worse in the more rural areas where there are fewer Western residents to report the true state of Covid infections and hospitalizations.
China Update: Well, I amend my prior comment. Two studies posted erev shabbos and Sunday evening indicate that the Chinese Sinovec vaccine shows little if any efficacy in protecting against the Omicron covid variant. Also very new data (both from the Chinese government itself as well as Western companies operating in the PRC) showing rising infection rates just over the past week. Given the transmission rates of Omicron, unclear that at this point they can do much to suppress a major spike. The timing is also a disaster because in about 2-3 weeks, the country begins the busiest travel time of the year for their version of Rosh Hashanah. Tens of millions of people work in the big cities were supposed to begin traveling home to smaller towns and villages which they have not been able to do for the past 2 years when the country was on lockdown.
Gadolhadorah so go move to china. We won’t miss you
ISRAEL IS A CRAZY COUNTRY COMMUNIST COUNTRY!!
Us jews have known it for years, but now the zionists are also seeing it too
WIPE THEM OFF THE MAP!!!!
The US should return the favor and ban all fish-dibs from entering here.
Please remember Hashem runs the world.
This is another way of saying that Israel is adding the “Mighty Dollar” to the red list, and shouldn’t expect to see any green paper ever again in Israel until they reopen the border to we loyal American Jews.
Probably wicked bennett received such huge bribes from his girl friends at world pageantry, that he no longer needs our “might dollars”.
Chezky:…..Not going to happen for a while since firm has extended the ban on most international travel through March 2022. However, just so you don’t get your hopes up, YWN is readily accessible from most western hotels and office VPNs in the PRC.