“The 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,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett noted, referring to a national drill conducted just two weeks ago to assess Israel’s preparedness for an outbreak of a potential unknown new strain of Covid-19.

All Israeli citizens returning from abroad – even those fully-vaccinated with two doses and a booster – will be forced to quarantine for at least three days, while those coming from “red” states will have to stay in designated military-run hotels until they test negative for the virus twice.

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. The controversial contact-tracing program was first used during the outbreak of the original Covid-19 strain back in 2020, but has since been ruled “no longer justifiable” by the High Court of Justice.

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