The Health Ministry is expected to weigh ending its regulation requiring fully vaccinated and boosted Israelis to quarantine after coming in contact with a positive case of the Omicron COVID variant.
Multiple health officials have said throughout the day that such a change is expected to come sometime in the next week or two, as close to 100,000 Israelis are currently in quarantine. More than 40,000 of those are school-age children.
Senior COVID expert Ran Balicer tells Channel 13 news that such a change is expected, and Channel 12 news reports that it could come as early as next week.
For months, fully vaccinated Israelis — who either have a booster dose or were vaccinated or recovered in the past six months — were not required to quarantine after coming in contact with a positive COVID patient.
With the outbreak of the new Omicron variant, the Health Ministry mandated a 7-day quarantine for those who come in contact with someone with the new variant, or someone who is suspected of being infected with the new variant — even if considered fully vaccinated.
So far, 1,118 Omicron cases have been confirmed in Israel.
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From the Liveblog of
Sunday, December 26, 2021
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