Austria, Czech Republic and Moldova will be only destinations from which travelers won’t be required to isolate upon their return to Israel
As of August 16, Israelis will only be able to return from three countries without having to quarantine, according to updated travel guidelines published by the Health Ministry on Sunday.
The guidelines divided countries into three categories — yellow countries with low COVID rates, from which arrivals must only isolate for 24 hours or until receipt of a negative test result; orange countries with higher COVID rates, from which arrivals will be required to isolate for one week; and red countries to which travel is barred entirely, unless an individual receives special permission from the government’s exemptions committee.
The list of yellow countries will be Austria, Australia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Taiwan, Moldova, New Zealand, China, Singapore and the Czech Republic. However, only three of those countries — Austria, the Czech Republic and Moldova — currently allow Israelis to enter.
The list of red countries will be Bulgaria, Brazil, Georgia, Mexico, Spain and Turkey.
All other countries — including the US and the UK — will be designated as orange.
Israelis who are not vaccinated or have not recovered from the coronavirus will be required to quarantine no matter what.
The Knesset’s Constitution Law and Justice Committee will convene on Monday to debate the new policy.
Until now, lawmakers and health officials were constantly updating the list of countries from which arrivals are required to quarantine, and the Health Ministry hopes the new policy will lead to less confusion on the matter.
Until August 16 though, Israelis will rely on the list updated last week.
Then, the Knesset added a slew of new countries from which even vaccinated travelers must quarantine — including the United States and Greece — amid fears travelers could bring in new virus variants.
Those new restrictions will go into effect on Wednesday, August 11.
The new additions are: the United States, Germany, France, Greece, Egypt (including the Sinai Peninsula), Ukraine, Italy, Iceland, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Botswana, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Tanzania, Malawi, the Czech Republic, Cuba, Rwanda and Tunisia.
Countries already on the list are: the UAE, Myanmar, Guatemala, Honduras, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Colombia, Fiji, Mongolia and Cambodia.
Costa Rica, Seychelles, Zambia, Paraguay, Uganda, Liberia, Panama and Kenya will be removed from the list as of Sunday, and the 18 new countries will enter the list officially on Wednesday.
The same quarantine rules apply for Israelis who return home from the countries that Israelis are banned from visiting: Spain, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, India, Mexico, Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Cyprus, Turkey, Georgia and the UK. Returnees who left Israel after the ban went into effect are also expected to pay a fine of NIS 5,000 ($1,500).
Overall, 42 countries are on the list of those from which returnees must quarantine for seven days with two negative PCR tests — or 14 days without.
As reported by The Times of Israel