Gov't votes to require all Dubai returnees to isolate in COVID-19 hotels

• Author: MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
• Date: 17 January 2021
• Published date: 17 January 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The Health Ministry recommended transferring all passengers from the UAE into these hotels, as well as people coming from Brazil, a move that was passed by the cabinet late Sunday and went into effect on Sunday at 1 a.m.

The decision is valid until January 27.

The cabinet also voted to extend the hotel requirement for people returning from South Africa and Zambia by 10 days, as well as the rule that anyone entering Israel would need to take two coronavirus tests – the first at the airport – and enter home isolation.

Four cases of the South African mutation were discovered through genetic sequencing in people who returned from Dubai last weekend, the Health Ministry reported over the weekend. The travelers had taken coronavirus tests at Ben-Gurion Airport upon their return and tested positive for the virus.

"We are continuing to deal with new variants entering the country through the airport," coronavirus commissioner Prof. Nachman Ash said Sunday during an afternoon press briefing. There are 20 known cases of the variant in the country that resulted from seven chains of infection, he said. On Saturday night, the Health Ministry reported 12 cases.

The Health Ministry has "recommended that the UAE be included in the list of countries that require a stay in a coronavirus hotel upon return to Israel," Ash said. It also is pushing to require that people entering Israel present a negative coronavirus test taken within 72 hours of arrival, he said.

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