Covid-19: Israel announces the end of its health pass

A resident shows her 'green passport', a pass for those vaccinated against Covid to enter a performance at Yarkon Park, in Tel Aviv, February 24, 2021. REUTERS - AMIR COHEN

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Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced Thursday evening the "end" of the health pass, of which his country had been one of the pioneers.

This measure comes as the wave of contamination linked to the Omicron variant is now fading in Israel.

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" 

,

,” Naftali Bennett said in a statement after meeting with public health officials.

At the height of the Omicron wave, at the end of January, Israel had recorded a local record of contamination with peaks at more than 80,000 cases per day for this country of 9.3 million inhabitants.

Over the past two weeks, that number has gradually declined to around 21,000 cases on Thursday, according to Health Ministry data.

The Israeli government was one of the first countries to set up a health pass a year ago, shortly after the launch of a vast vaccination campaign, in order to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the beginning of February, the government had canceled the obligation to have a pass to sit in cafes, restaurants, bars, sports halls or hotels.

But it had been maintained for other places, such as concert halls or cinemas.

An anti-restriction convoy like in Canada

Earlier this week, thousands of Israelis converged on Jerusalem in cars or trucks from several cities across the country to demonstrate against pandemic-related health restrictions, mimicking

that appeared in Canada and swarmed to several countries.

According to the organizers, it was launched by “

” to protest against the restrictions imposed to curb the pandemic and which, according to them, constitute attacks on their freedom.

This convoy, which was destined for the Parliament in Jerusalem, caused major traffic jams on Monday against the backdrop of a concert of horns.

►Also read: Decryption - "Convoys of freedom": who are they?

A political force in power?

The PCR test before returning to Israel in question

The Israeli government must also decide in the coming days on the abandonment of the requirement of a PCR test in order to return to the country, currently open to foreign travelers, said Prime Minister Bennett.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has also repeated in recent weeks that he wants to fight the virus, in particular by encouraging vaccination, but without " 

" the country's economy which had contracted in the first months of the pandemic, in 2020.

Moreover, over the past year, in 2021, the Israeli economy has rebounded to see its GDP grow by 8.1%, its strongest growth since 2000, the National Institute of Statistics said on Wednesday, quoted by AFP.

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