In its effort to continue to combat the spread of the Omicron strain of the Coronavirus, Israel’s Health Ministry has recommended to the government to add 7 additional countries to its already existing list of 52 countries that Israelis are no longer permitted to travel to without special permission.

The newly recommended countries are Ireland, Norway, Spain, Finland, France, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates. Should the government approve the request, these countries will be added to the list effective on December 19th. Anyone returning from ‘red’ countries, no matter what their previous status of vaccination or having recovered from Covid-19 is required to be isolated for a minimum of seven days.

The recommendation was given by the Health Ministry to the government on Wednesday evening and needs to be ratified by the cabinet and the Constitutional Committee of the Knesset. It is expected that this will happen prior to Sunday when the recommendation will go into effect.

Additionally, it was also reported by Israeli media that both the United States and Canada are on another list of countries that may very well be designated as red sometime next week.

Thus far, out of the 52 countries that are already designated as ‘red’ by Israel’s Health Ministry, 50 are African nations and only two, the U.K. and Denmark, are in Europe. Among the newly added 7 are 6 from Europe and one from the middle-east.

The government (via phone voting), also approved the extension of the regulations restricting entry to, and exit from, Israel by an additional seven days. The restrictions will now last until Wednesday, December 29th at midnight.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)