Interior Minister Arye Deri ordered the closure of Israel’s border crossings with Egypt and Jordan on Thursday in an effort to prevent further virus variants from entering Israel.

The order, which went into effect on Thursday at 6 a.m. and will be enforced until at least through Sunday night, follows the closure of Ben-Gurion Airport on Monday night at midnight.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday that Israel’s airport was closed because “it’s just a matter of time until we hit a strain that the current vaccines are not susceptible to.”

“All the mutations that you see today… that’s two weeks too late. And the new ones you wouldn’t know about for about two weeks.”

According to the WHO, the British variant has now spread to over 70 countries, 10 more than a week ago. The South African variant is now present in 31 countries, 8 more than a week ago, and the Brazilian variant is now present in 8 countries.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)