Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏ stated on Sunday that Israel’s skies should be closed to all international flights in light of the new coronavirus mutations in the UK and South Africa, during a meeting of the coronavirus cabinet.

Earlier on Sunday, Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority informed Israel’s airlines on Sunday that non-Israelis from the UK, Denmark and South Africa are banned from entering the country due to the discovery of a fast-moving new variant of the coronavirus in the UK that is more than 70% more transmissible than existing strains.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein has also called for Israel’s skies to be closed to all flights.

“We must first and foremost protect Israel’s borders,” he said. “We apologize to all those who may be harmed by that, but the most important thing is to be safe. We can’t allow additional mutations into the country on top of our current woes.”

Edelstein added that he hopes Ben-Gurion will close this week because “time is critical. What we fail to do in the next hours will be too late to do later.”

A new and more severe variant of the coronavirus has also been discovered in South Africa, its health minister said on Friday.

The new variant, known as the 501.V2 Variant, has been affecting younger patients who are suffering from serious cases of the virus despite being in good health otherwise.

South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that this “strongly suggests that the current second wave we are experiencing is being driven by this new variant.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)