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Israel to reopen to vaccinated from low-risk countries

January 3, 2022

In response to the emergence of the omicron variant, Israel had closed its borders to all foreign tourists on November 28.

https://p.dw.com/p/455cn
Ben Gurion International Airport with masked travelers and their luggage walking from the arrivals hall
Ben Gurion International Airport closed to international tourists in November with the emergence of the omicron variant but is set to reopen from Sunday to vaccinated travelers from low-risk countriesImage: DEBBIE HILL/newscom/picture alliance

Israel said Monday that foreign visitors from low-risk countries who are vaccinated will be permitted to enter the country.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and a group of ministers decided at a meeting that "entry of vaccinated/recovering tourists from 'orange' countries will be permitted" starting Sunday.

The move to reopen the country's borders comes five weeks after they were shut on November 28 to slow the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant of COVID-19.

Why did Israel close its borders?

Israel had closed its borders to give the country time to prepare for an inevitable fifth wave of the virus and acquire a significant quantity of Pfizer's antiviral drug Paxlovid.

Even with soaring new infection numbers, Bennett said Sunday the border closure had given Israel time to prepare.

"This greatly delayed the entry of omicron to the country," he said. "We bought time and we utilized it well."

Bennett cautioned Israel could see a ten-fold rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the days and weeks to come due to the variant.

Who can and cannot enter Israel and what is required to do so?

Foreign visitors to Israel will be required to take a PCR or antigen test prior to boarding their planes and a second PCR test will be administered on arrival. Visitors will then be required to quarantine for 24 hours or until a test result comes back negative.

Israel has restricted travel for Israeli citizens to countries it has labeled high risk, or red list countries, and citizens of those countries will not be granted entry.

As of Monday, countries on the Health Ministry's red list include Ethiopia, Mexico, Switzerland, Tanzania, Turkey, the UAE, the UK and the US.

However, visitors from nearly 200 countries including Germany, Australia, Ireland and Italy will be admitted if vaccinated or recovered from the virus. 

The Health Ministry has also said 16 countries including Canada, France, Nigeria, Portugal, South Africa and Spain should be added to the list of those permitted entry when the country reopens.

What is the situation with COVID-19 in Israel?

On Monday, Israel logged just over 6,500 new COVID-19 cases, almost double last week's daily average.

Israel has seen nearly 1.4 million COVID-19 infections and 8,244 deaths over the course of the pandemic.

ar/rt (AFP, Reuters)