Lawmakers criticized Prime Minister Naftali Bennett Wednesday after announcement that his wife and children were going on vacation overseas, despite the premier's recent calls on Israelis to refrain from necessary travel abroad.
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The family's original destination was the island of Mauritius, which has since been added to the government's no-fly list along with 49 other African countries, prompting them to change their vacation plans.
"After the decision of the coronavirus cabinet to leave the skies open, the destination of the vacation changed in accordance with the updated guidelines. The Bennett family will, of course, follow all the guidelines and rules that apply to Israeli citizens," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement but did not specify to where exactly the family would be traveling.
During a press conference on Friday, Bennett urged Israelis not to travel abroad due to the new Omicron coronavirus variant.
"If someone asked me, at the moment I wouldn't recommend flying abroad amid a level of uncertainty like this," he said. "That's the truth."
In a Twitter post, Likud MK Israel Katz called the move "a political lie turned normal."
Bennett responded in a Facebook post on Wednesday evening, saying, "The Bennett family is subject to the same rules that apply to all Israeli citizens. I understand the criticism, however, we have learned more about the variant since Friday."
Also on Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first Omicron case in the United States.
"This is the first confirmed case of COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant detected in the United States," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president's chief medical adviser, told reporters at a White House briefing. "As all of you know, of course, we've been discussing this, we knew that it was just a matter of time."
According to Fauci, the infected person returned from South Africa nine days earlier and tested positive for COVID on Monday.
The traveler was vaccinated with two vaccine doses and was experiencing "mild symptoms that are improving," the CDC said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus infection rate remained low in Israel and currently stands at 0.58%, according to Health Ministry data published on Thursday morning. Of the 98,172 Israelis screened in the past 24 hours, 526 tested positive.
There are 5,584 active cases in the country with 151 patients hospitalized. Of those, 116 are in serious condition.
Israel has reported 1,344,472 cases since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, including 8,199 deaths.
Thus far, 4,086,805 Israelis over the age of 16 have gotten fully vaccinated, 5,778,068 received the second jab and 6,345,114 got their first doses.
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However, while the coronavirus seems to be under control in Israel, South Africa, where Omicron was first detected, reports a much different situation.
Preliminary data from health officials showed that the number of new cases almost doubled every day in the last few days. Although it is not yet clear whether the new strain is responsible for the alarming increase, experts estimate that two-thirds of new cases are indeed Omicron.
Another troubling development is the increase in infection rate among children. According to data from the South African Health Ministry, 10% of hospitalized are children under the age of two, a number much higher compared to other parts of the world.
"Young children appear to be at a greater risk due to the new variant," a South African Health Ministry official said. Until now, the majority of those hospitalized were adults. But during the [morbidity] outbreak in Tswana, we see that the largest age group are children under the age of two.
Tswana, near Johanessburg, has turned into a hot stop of Omicron infections seemingly due to a low number of vaccinated residents.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
