Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has announced that the Jewish state may soon impose a national emergency to respond to a new variant of COVID-19 that was earlier detected in South Africa.
"We are currently on the verge of a state of emergency. Our main principle is to act fast, strong, and now", the prime minister said during a meeting with the country's health experts on Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett chairs the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem August 22, 2021. Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool via REUTERS
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He spoke as Israel added all African nations, except those located in North Africa, to its "red list" of high-risk countries. The move essentially bars Israelis from travelling to and from these nations.
Travellers returning from most of Africa are obliged to go through a seven-day mandatory quarantine at a state-run facility regardless of vaccination status, and they will be released only after two negative PCR tests.
Several European countries, including the UK, Germany, and the Czech Republic, have also introduced a travel ban on African nations in connection with the new coronavirus strain.
On Thursday, the Israeli Health Ministry said in a statement that they had registered the first case of the new COVID strain in the country. According to the ministry, the new variant was detected in a traveller who returned from Malawi.
The ministry also said that the traveller and two other people infected with the suspected new variant have been placed in isolation. All of them are vaccinated and the ministry is now examining their exact vaccination status, the statement stressed.
Earlier this week, South African researchers told a news conference that the so-called B.1.1.529 variant has a "very unusual constellation" of mutations, which they said are a matter of concern because they could help the new strain evade a human's immune response and make the virus more transmissible.