According to new legislation passed by the Knesset on Wednesday, Israelis returning from abroad will now have the option to spend their isolation period in an isolation hotel, or at home. Should the returning citizens choose the latter option, they will be required to wear an electronic bracelet to ensure that they indeed isolate at home. The bracelet operates in connection with a smartphone and sends alerts back to the Health Ministry as to the whereabouts of the individual.
The technological element involved poses a problem for Charedim, many of whom do not possess a smartphone and only have a ‘kosher’ phone or no phone at all. In order for them to not automatically be forced to go into an isolation hotel, a special exception was made by MK Yaakov Asher, who succeeded at getting the Health Ministry to agree to give these individuals locked smartphone that will only be useable for tracking purposes and not for anything else.
Children under the age of 14, as well as people who have other special humanitarian cases, will be exempt from wearing the bracelet.
All those currently entering the country are required to isolate, unless they present a vaccination or a recovery certificate issued by the Israeli Health Ministry. Those who were inoculated or who recovered abroad can be released from the quarantine if they undergo a serological test to prove their level of antibodies.
Electronic devices have already been in use for several weeks on a voluntary basis to ensure that people do not break the quarantine. The bill now gives the government the authority to force returning citizens to wear them of be forced to go to an isolation hotel.
According to the bill, the operation is carried out by private companies on behalf of the ministry. The information collected is stored in servers owned by the government but maintained by the companies and will be deleted at the end of the period if there is no report of infraction or no longer than 30 days. The company will have the responsibility to inform the authorities should the person be seen to leave their house.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Why not just send guards to make sure they are home and ensure they eat nothing but the jail meals that are assigned to them?
Disgusting. Who wants to visit such a country?
So very nice of the government jailers to commission private businesses to monitor the whereabouts of their healthy adult citizens….and moser their whereabouts.
And so very, very nice of them to devise helpful technological strategies so Chareidim can participate equally, and then -cough, cough – they won’t be discriminated against and can travel.
Besides all that malarkey, what about wearing that cute li’l bracelet on Shabbos- I mean so far, [even asymptomatic] quarantine is for 10 days. Somwhere in there comes Shabbos. Or let’s say they shorten quarantine to 6 or 7 days. So every shomer Shabbos person goes to a jail hotel unless they arrive in Israel on a Sunday morning?
Why do they talk about locked cell phones to accommodate Chareidim but not a peep about Shabbos? Cannot wait for the noise.