Health Ministry officials warned last week that the main reason behind the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant in Israel was Israelis returning from the United Arab Emirates and Russia. Russia is currently on the govenrment's blacklist of travel destinations due to its COVID numbers.
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Israel has recorded 841,610 coronavirus cases and 6,429 deaths since the global pandemic reached the country in early 2020.
In the 24 hours from Tuesday to Wednesday morning, 67,895 COVID tests yielded 293 positive results (a 0.5% positive rate).
A total of 50 COVID patients were hospitalized, including 24 listed in serious condition. Of the seriously ill hospitalized patients, 17 were listed in critical condition and 16 were on ventilators.
There were 1,760 active (symptomatic) cases in the country, 90% of which, experts say, were the Delta strain.
"The vast majority of cases in which the Delta variant was identified are [returnees] from the UAE and Russia, but some are also from Cyprus, Belarus, Seychelles and more," Central District Officer of Health Ofra Havkin said at a meeting with fellow health experts.
At the same meeting, Professor Mitchell Schwaber, director of the National Infection Prevention Unit, called for the need to advise the public to reconsider traveling abroad, especially if unvaccinated.
Coronavirus Commissioner Professor Nachman Ash added that "the recommendation not to travel abroad is already being communicated, and there is a list of countries Israelis are discouraged from visiting at this time. [Nevertheless,] Israelis will continue to travel abroad even if there is a travel ban. In July and August, we are expecting a rise in such travels."
In the meantime, Ben-Gurion Airport is already overwhelmed with the number of arrivals. It has been struggling for weeks to tackle the crowdedness and the lines. To that end, and to curb the spread of the Delta strain, Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli has instructed the airport to separate arrivals from countries with a high rate of coronavirus morbidity, so-called "black" and "red" countries, into a separate terminal.
According to the instructions, arrivals from "black" and "red" countries will be directed to Terminal 1, and the rest to Terminal 3.
The Transportation Ministry said in a statement its decision was made "after meeting with experts from Ben Gurion Airport and in coordination with the prime minister [Naftali Bennett], health minister [Nitzan Horowitz], and finance minister [Avigdor Lieberman] … with the aim of reducing the spread of infection."
Six countries are currently defined as "black" – Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Russia and India. Of the six, only Russia and India continue to have direct flights to Israel. However, many tourists continue to travel to Israel from the South American countries via stop-overs in Turkey and Germany.
Sources privy to the matter told Israel Hayom that the ministry's decision would cost millions of shekels and result in a lack of coordination among the many elements working at the airport.
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