Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was self-isolating on Tuesday after someone who was on his flight back from the United Arab Emirates on Monday tested positive for COVID.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
After receiving the information, the Prime Minister's Office contacted the Health Ministry for further instructions.
In accordance with COVID regulations, Bennett and his entourage went into self-isolation pending negative results from the COVID tests they are scheduled to take on Wednesday.
New travel regulations require anyone returning from abroad, regardless of vaccination status, to enter quarantine upon arriving in Israel.
The arrivals can be released only if they receive two negative PCR tests, one conducted on the day of their entry to Israel, and another three days after.
As of Tuesday, there were 744 new confirmed COVID cases in Israel and a total of 6,186 active or symptomatic COVID patients.
A total of 90 COVID patients were hospitalized in serious condition nationwide, 59 of whom were listed in critical condition, including 48 patients who were on ventilators and 17 who were attached to ECMO machines.
Israel's total COVID death toll since the start of the pandemic in early 2020 stood at 8,223 after an additional seven patients succumbed to the virus between Monday and Tuesday, bringing the number of COVID dead in the last seven days to 12.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
Meanwhile, a study released by South Africa's largest private health insurer reported Tuesday that two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine appear to have given 70% protection against hospitalization in South Africa in recent weeks.
The study by Discovery Health was based on more than 211,000 positive COVID-19 test results from Nov. 15 to Dec. 7, around 78,000 of which were attributed to Omicron.
The 78,000 results are not confirmed Omicron cases, meaning the study is not able to make conclusive findings about the variant labelled "of concern" by the World Health Organization.
South African scientists have so far confirmed around 550 Omicron sequences, with the variant accounting for 78% of sequences from November, more than the previously dominant Delta variant.
The study calculated that two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech offered 70% protection against hospitalization compared with the unvaccinated during the recent surge in cases and 33% protection against infection.
It said this represents a drop from 80% protection against infection and compares with above 90% efficacy against hospital admission during South Africa's outbreak of the Delta variant, which is the globally dominant variant and considered to be the most infectious to emerge during the pandemic.
Discovery cautioned that the study's findings should be considered preliminary.
As of Tuesday morning, a total of 6,414,985 Israelis had received a single dose of the COVID vaccine; 5,792,511 Israelis had received two doses, and 4,230,143 had received two doses and a booster shoot.
i24NEWS contributed to this report
