Israel to wait an extra day on marking UK, Denmark ‘red’ countries

The Health Ministry says it will wait until midnight Thursday-Friday before declaring Britain and Denmark “red countries” and significantly curtailing travel to and from those countries amid rising coronavirus infection rates there.

Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public health services at the Health Ministry, had said Sunday that the countries would be added to the list of “red” nations in the next 72 hours.

The announcement from the Health Ministry indicates that the delay aims to allow Israelis to rush back home from those locations before being subject to more strict quarantine restrictions meant to stem the spread of the Omicron variant.

“The decision to delay the decision by a day is meant to allow the public time to make more plans, mostly to get back to Israel before the decision goes into effect,” a statement from the Health Ministry reads.

If they can get into Israel in time, those coming from Britain and Denmark can avoid needing to quarantine at a state-run facility for at least 10 days, under new quarantine rules approved Sunday by a Knesset committee, and instead be able to isolate for only three days at home, pending two negative tests.