Israel extends travel ban to US, Canada, 8 other countries as Omicron rages

The Israeli Cabinet has approved the recommendations by health officials to extend the travel ban to 10 more countries, including the United States and Canada, due to the spread of the Omicron variant.

The decision was announced by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett office following a Cabinet vote on Monday.

The rare move of banning travel to the United States comes amid a rapid spread of the new variant of concern across the globe and a rise in infections in Israel, a country with high vaccination coverage. The travel ban is expected to take effect from Wednesday midnight once the parliamentary committee gives the decision a final approval.

The US and Canada will join several European countries and other destinations on the so-called travel red-list to which Israelis would be barred from travelling and incoming travellers must remain in quarantine for a stipulated time period.

Here’s the list of countries Israel will extend its travel ban:

United States

Canada

Belgium

Germany

Hungary

Italy

Morocco

Portugal

Switzerland

Turkey

The travel restrictions come amid growing concern over the transmission rate of the Omicron variant which has now spread to at least 89 countries within a month of its identification by South African and Botswanan scientists in November. Top health experts, including White House medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci, has sounded alarm bells about the variant of concern raging through the world.

“I don’t foresee the kind of lockdowns that we’ve seen before but I certainly see the potential for stress on our hospital system,” Fauci said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.”