Aide in recent contact with defense minister reportedly tests positive for Omicron

15 December 2021, 4:21 pm

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Defense Minister Benny Gantz sitting behind a glass partition in the Knesset plenary hall, December 15, 2021. (Noam Moshkowitz/Knesset)

An aide to Defense Minister Benny Gantz recently tested positive for the Omicron variant of COVID, reports Channel 12 news.

Gantz, who recently returned from Miami where he attended a conference, said earlier today that he was in self-imposed quarantine after discovering that an aide who flew with him to the United States this week had tested positive for COVID.

According to a statement from Gantz’s office, the staffer tested negative for the virus in PCR tests both before and after the trip, but came up as positive in a test taken two days later.

Now Channel 12 reports that the aide in question tested positive for the new Omicron variant, which is raising alarms around the world over its suspected high levels of contagion.