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FILE PHOTO: A healthcare worker takes a swab sample from a traveler at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel, October 13, 2021. \u00a9 Reuters \/ Ronen Zvulun<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
RT.com<\/p>\n
Israel has banned all foreigners from entering the country and tasked intelligence services with locating and tracking all recent arrivals from the hotspots of the newly emerged Omicron coronavirus variant.<\/p>\n
The new rules are set to come into effect on Sunday night, making Israel the first country to completely seal its borders to foreign nationals for at least 14 days, following an emergency meeting of the Corona Cabinet.\u00a0Only those specifically approved by a so-called Exceptions Committee will be allowed entry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Prime Minister Naftali Bennett noted, referring to a national drill conducted just two weeks ago to assess Israel\u2019s preparedness for an outbreak of a potential unknown new strain of Covid-19.<\/p>\n All Israeli citizens returning from abroad \u2013 even those fully vaccinated with two doses and a booster \u2013 will be forced to quarantine for at least three days, while those coming from\u00a0\u201cred\u201d<\/em>\u00a0states will have to stay in designated military-run hotels until they test negative for the virus twice.<\/p>\n Those who had visited an African state over the past week were urged to undergo a test and isolated voluntarily, while internal security agency Shin Bet was tasked with monitoring the compliance using its cell phone tracking capabilities.<\/p>\n The controversial contact-tracing program was first used during the outbreak of the original Covid-19\u00a0virus back in 2020, but has since been ruled\u00a0\u201cno longer justifiable\u201d<\/em>\u00a0by the High Court of Justice.<\/p>\n The harsh measures come after Israel detected a single confirmed and seven suspected cases of the new variant B.1.1.529, first registered earlier this month in Botswana. During an emergency meeting on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially designated the new strain a\u00a0\u201cvariant of concern,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0calling it Omicron.<\/p>\n Growing fears of the Omicron variant promptly triggered global travel bans, with flights from South Africa and several of its neighboring countries being barred by a growing number of states. While little is known about the variant thus far, experts worldwide have already raised the alarm over its multiple mutations and potential for infection. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control designated the strain as presenting a\u00a0\u201chigh to very high\u201d<\/em>\u00a0risk, adding that there was\u00a0\u201cconsiderable uncertainty related to the transmissibility, vaccine effectiveness, risk for reinfections and other properties of the Omicron variant.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n