Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged citizens to step up vaccination and take precautions such as working from home, as Israel is in the midst of a fifth wave of COVID 19 due to the Omicron variant.
In a televised address, Bennett said Israel had bought some time by moving fast to limit travel when Omicron was first detected last month, but that this was now waning. He predicted a surge in the number of illnesses within a few weeks.
A Health Ministry advisory committee recommended that Israel adds the United States to the list of red countries that its citizens can't fly without special permission. Israel has logged 134 confirmed Omicron cases and 307 suspected cases, according to the Health Ministry. It said that 167 of these were symptomatic.
Bennett said that the time we bought is running out. The numbers are still not high, but it's a very contagious variant that doubles itself every two-three days, as we see around the world. It's possible to say that the fifth wave has begun. Israel banned entry of foreigners on November 25 and has imposed three to 14 day quarantine orders for Israelis returning from abroad in response to Omicron, which was first detected in southern Africa and Hong Kong.
Bennett has come under domestic criticism for a foreign vacation his wife and children took after he urged Israelis not to take such trips.