At Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, January 24, 2021. -

Debbie Hill / UPI // SIPA

Israel on Sunday evening decreed the suspension, for nearly a week, of international flights as part of new health measures aimed at limiting the spread of Covid-19 variants in parallel with an ambitious vaccination campaign extending to teenagers.  

The Hebrew state may have already vaccinated 2.5 of its nine million inhabitants in the last month, January saw the number of cases of contamination explode again due in particular to non-compliance, according to health authorities, physical distancing measures by part of the population.

In the process, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday asked his cabinet to approve new strengthened health measures in a country where businesses deemed non-essential are already closed.

Some exceptions

However this time, the government decided to also crack down on travelers by decreeing that flights - from and to Israel - would be banned from midnight overnight from Monday to Tuesday until January 31, the scheduled date of the end of containment measures.

"We are sealing the skies, except for very rare exceptions, in order to prevent the entry of viral mutations, and also to ensure that we are moving quickly with our vaccination campaign," Benjamin Netanyahu told his ministers .

The Hebrew state had already indicated that in recent weeks it had identified cases of the British variant of Covid-19, considered more contagious, which has also been detected in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian health authorities.

However, according to a statement from the Israeli Ministry of Health, cargo flights will be allowed.

Also, people who have to go abroad for medical follow-up, do "essential work that cannot be done remotely", move or attend funerals with their families, will be allowed to travel, authorities said. without specifying for the moment how these travelers were going to be able to leave the country.

Teenagers get vaccinated

Already, travelers authorized to travel to Israel had since this weekend to present a negative test (72 hours or less) before taking the plane or to present proof that they have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

Separately, Israel this weekend began vaccinating teenagers against the coronavirus as part of its national campaign which has already covered more than a quarter of the population.

Israel has obtained a stock of vaccines from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in exchange for the rapid sharing of data on the effects of this immunization on its population, under the terms of the agreement between the two parties made public.

World

Coronavirus: Israel is preparing to begin its third lockdown

Health

Coronavirus: How France could be inspired by Israel to improve its vaccination campaign?

  • Covid 19

  • World

  • Coronavirus

  • Airport

  • Plane

  • Israel