TEL AVIV — Israel on Monday barred travel to 10 new countries, including the United States, Canada and Germany, as its total number of omicron cases reached 175 and the prime minister warned that the fifth wave of the coronavirus had already arrived.

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       Israel’s updated “red list” now also includes Italy, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Turkey and Switzerland. The ban against the added countries will come into effect Tuesday at midnight.

       Travel from Israel to red countries is forbidden, unless travelers receive permission from a special committee. Those flying into Israel from a red country must enter a seven day quarantine even if they are fully vaccinated.

       Israel bars all foreigners, reinstates phone surveillance in effort to contain omicron variant

       Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a televised news conference on Sunday that Israel had “bought precious time” by banning the entry of non-foreigners and restricting international travel in recent weeks, but that it was now the citizens’ responsibility to take action. He urged all eligible Israelis to fully vaccinate themselves and their children.

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       The definition for “fully vaccinated” in Israel requires travelers to be 12 or older and have received a booster shot at least one week prior, be within six months of having received a second vaccination shot, or be within six months of having tested positive for coronavirus. Last month, Israel opened up vaccinations to children as young as 5.

       “Given the very infectious nature of this variant, the collective, national protection provided by the state isn’t enough. The fifth wave is arriving [and] every family needs to prepare,” said Bennett.

       He added that more than 5 million children have been vaccinated in the United States, with few significant side effects. Only about 10 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 11 have been vaccinated in Israel, with the lowest rates in ultra-Orthodox, Arab and lower-income communities.

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       “A parent who is protected with three doses must also protect his children,” Bennett said.

       The Israeli Health Ministry has said that the majority of omicron cases had come from travelers who returned from abroad. On Sunday, 17 travelers on a flight from Miami to Israel tested positive for the coronavirus, with most of the cases suspected to be the omicron variant.

       Earlier this month, a small study carried out by Sheba Medical Center in central Israel found that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are not effective against the omicron variant.

       A third “booster” shot does provide “significant protection,” though about four times weaker than that against the delta variant, said Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Unit at Sheba Medical Center, in an online news conference.

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       Sheba Medical Center is preparing for a fourth dose preliminary trial, using about 100 medical personnel.

       Last month, Israeli Health Minsiter Nitzan Horowitz said that Israel’s decision to open booster shots to the general population, as the delta variant was spreading across the globe but before it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, was “justified.” He said that it was possible that the government may decide on providing fourth shots, but the decision would be “based on medical needs.”

       Last January, Israel launched the world’s most rapid and widely reaching inoculation campaign through its well organized and meticulously digitized national health-care system. Out of a population of 9.3 million, today 6.4 million have received their first shot, 5.8 million have received their second and 4.1 million have received their third shot.

       It has recorded at least 8,232 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic.

       Read more:

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