Travelers leaving Israel must pledge not to go to countries with high COVID risk
Form must be completed 24 hours before departure; order goes into effect on Tuesday
Travelers leaving Israel are required starting Tuesday to declare they aren’t heading to high-risk countries with widespread COVID-19 that have been blacklisted by the Health Ministry.
The directive, announced by the ministry on Monday, will apply to Israeli citizens and residents 16 and older. The form, which must be signed 24 hours prior to leaving the country, can be accessed here.
The measure comes as the government has ramped up restrictions on entry to the country in light of the renewed outbreak of the Delta variant in the country, primarily due to arrivals from abroad.
The countries where Israelis are currently banned from traveling, per a Health Ministry order, are Argentina, Brazil, India, South Africa, Mexico and Russia. On Sunday, ministers in the cabinet decided that anyone who travels to those six countries will be fined NIS 5,000 ($1,500).
The Health Ministry on Sunday added Belarus and Kyrgyzstan to the list of nations with a “critical travel warning,” joining Uganda, Uruguay, the United Arab Emirates, Seychelles, Ethiopia, Bolivia, Namibia, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Tunisia. Nepal and Maldives were removed from the list.
If the situation in those does not improve, they could be added to the list of countries Israelis are banned from entering.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday appointed Roni Numa to oversee COVID-19 screening at Ben Gurion Airport and other international crossings — widely seen as one of the country’s weak points in curbing the spread of the virus.
“The responsibility will be to deal with this now as well as look toward the future,” Bennett said. “Vaccinations do not always work. There can be variants, next month, next year or in four years, for which there is no vaccine. Therefore, in Israel, which does not have very many crossings — in effect it is a kind of island — there is no reason why we cannot protect ourselves even if there is no vaccine.”
Bennett has encouraged Israelis to avoid nonessential travel.
There are currently 1,254 active COVID-19 cases in Israel, with 145 new infections diagnosed on Sunday after weeks in which the daily caseload remained in the low dozens. There are 22 people in serious condition from the disease.
