Travelers at the departure hall at Ben Gurion Airport on December 14, 2020. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel’s skies must be closed to all international flights, as ministers convened to discuss further restricting entry to the country for people arriving from countries where a new, more infectious strain of the coronavirus has been identified.
“Stop all flights from all over the world,” Netanyahu said.
Health officials are concerned about the new coronavirus strain found in England and are weighing testing those who returned to Israel from the United Kingdom for the variant.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday announced a “stay at home” order for London and southeast England to slow the spread of the new coronavirus strain. Early data suggests the new strain could be “up to 70 percent more transmissible,” Johnson said at a televised briefing.
2020-12-20 10:35:17 GMT2020-12-20 18:35:17(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
JERUSALEM, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) Israel launched on Sunday its COVID-19 inoculation drive as the infectious virus has quickly reared its ugly head again in the country.
Health workers were the first to get the shots in the campaign that aims at vaccinating about 60,000 people per day, the Prime Minister s Office and the health ministry said in statements.
On Monday, the vaccine will be given to people over 60 and people with medical conditions that put them at higher risk of developing serious symptoms if infected, according to the statements.
The recipients will get a booster shot in three weeks for optimal protection.
Likud MK David Bitan at the Knesset on July 31, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein on Saturday night paid a visit to a Likud lawmaker who is hospitalized with a serious case of COVID-19.
Netanyahu and Edelstein went to the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv to see David Bitan, shortly after becoming the first people in Israel to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
Video footage from the hospital visit showed Netanyahu and Edelstein waving at Bitan through the glass.
Bitan’s family said Saturday that he remains in serious but stable condition. They said the lawmaker is still hooked up to an apparatus to assist his heart and lungs an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine and is communicating with those around him.
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