Israel is bracing itself for more cases of the newly discovered Covid-19 variant, two health officials said, as prime minister Naftali Benett warned that the highly-vaccinated country was on the “threshold of a state of emergency”.
Israel, which rolled out third booster shots to millions of its citizens starting in July, currently has no quarantine restrictions on vaccinated travellers, leading to concerns that contact tracing and testing will reveal more than the one confirmed and two suspected cases of the B. 1.1.529 strain.
All three were vaccinated, the health officials said. It is unclear if all three had received their boosters. Before the discovery of these cases, Israel had just this week relaxed entry requirements for vaccinated tourists and Israelis, allowing them to use antigen tests — rather than the more accurate PCR tests — to enter the country.
“Our main principle is to act fast, strong and now,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
Israel has banned travel to and flights from seven southern African nations, including South Africa and Botswana. Israelis returning from those countries will have to quarantine in hotels for seven days, and be tested twice before release.
The discovery comes just as Israel kicked off the vaccination of children over the age of five to rein in a slowly building fifth wave of cases, after quelling a fourth wave around August with the mass rollout of third shots. Some 0.7 per cent of tests came back positive on Thursday, the Times of Israel reported, as the government mulled stricter entry requirements to indoor venues.
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