New COVID-19 variant: Israel blacklists all sub-Saharan African countries

The Israeli government on Friday, November 26, announced an entry ban on all sub-Saharan African countries as a result of the new variant of the Coronavirus.

The new variant was discovered in South Africa this week but had led to restricted travel bans on passengers arriving from predominantly southern African countries to places like United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States.

The measure was announced via a statement after

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett convened a follow-up discussion on the new B.1.1529 coronavirus strain.

The statement read in part that, “He pointed out that the Government of Israel is working quickly and vigorously thanks to the conclusions that were formulated following the ‘Omega’ national drill which gamed various situations regarding the appearance of new variants.

“Following are the decisions that have been made at the current stage:

“All countries of Africa, including Mauritius, the Seychelle Islands and Madagascar, except for the countries of northern Africa, will be defined as red countries.

“The entry of foreign nationals from these countries to Israel is prohibited,” the statement noted.

Other measures include that: “IDF Home Front Command will locate all persons who have arrived from these countries in the past week and will instruct them to go into quarantine immediately, while home sampling is carried out.

“All persons who were in an African country (even if they arrived in Israel from somewhere else) during the past week are called upon to present themselves immediately for a PCR test and afterward enter into quarantine until the results are received.”