Israel bans citizens from traveling to EU countries to curb spread of 'omicron'

The fifth wave of Covid-19 has begun. The Omicron variant brought the fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic to Israel, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a televised speech on Sunday, urging citizens to step up vaccination of children and administration of booster doses.

The Israeli government has banned its citizens from going to European countries that have been blacklisted, and the United States may be added to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

These travel restrictions, which already apply to most African countries, as well as Britain and Denmark, now apply to Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates. Emirates.

The Israeli Ministry of Health has also recommended that the United States be added to this red list, despite the hundreds of thousands of dual nationals, as well as Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey. This proposal has not yet been ratified by the government.

Prime Minister Bennett defended the travel restrictions, stressing that they are necessary to avoid resorting to new lockdowns.

"Time is running out. "European countries have either quarantined or are preparing to do so," he said before a cabinet meeting.

Travelers from red-listed countries are barred from entering Israel, with some exceptions. Citizens and residents of Israel who were in a country recently blacklisted should be quarantined for one week as soon as they return.

More than 440 cases of the Omicron variant have already been identified in Israel, one month after its identification in South Africa.