Were you looking for signs that prove Israel’s health ministry is just as crazed and unreliable under the new minister, Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) as it was under his predecessor Yuli Edelstein (Likud)? All you have to do is follow this story of yes/no quarantine restrictions to be reassured: things are as wonderfully messy today as they were under the old administration, it’s a wonder we’re all still alive, and if that doesn’t prove the existence of God and His involvement in guarding the people of Israel, I don’t know what will.
The health ministry changed its mind on Sunday afternoon and announced that vaccinated and verified people who were at the show in the Emek HaMaainot Regional Council are not obligated to enter quarantine.
In the morning, hundreds of spectators were asked to stay in solitary confinement, after it became clear that the audience included Corona patients. Nevertheless, the ministry recommends that vaccinated and recovering people who were at the show undergo corona tests, and avoid exposure to people until the result is obtained.
According to the ministry, the source of the illness of the one girl who was present at the show is still being investigated, and there’s a connection to a patient who recently entered the country. The decision to compel all 450 spectators at the show to go into isolation does not reflect a sweeping policy of the ministry and has been defined as only a precautionary measure.
And feel free to receive a new announcement that turns this latest one on its head.
This comes after a woman who attended the performance at the Qimron Hall — who recently returned from Dubai — contracted the virus while abroad and then spread it to her family in Israel.
All attendees at the performance are also being required to take a coronavirus test at the first opportunity, regardless of whether they are vaccinated, recovered, or not.
Up to this point Israelis who have been fully vaccinated were not required to observe COVID-19 restrictions.
This time, however, an exception is being made because it is suspected the woman may have been among those who have brought the “Delta variant” — first identified in India — to Israel.
The Delta variant is known to be high contagious and moves even faster through a population than the “Alpha variant” first identified in the UK — which was known to be more contagious than the original SARS-CoV-19 coronavirus.
Last Tuesday, the Israeli government finally lifted the requirement for indoor masks; however, that move is being revoked in schools in the northern and central Israeli cities of Binyamina and Modi’in Illit.
For the final ten days of this school year, students in those schools are being required to mask back up after coronavirus outbreaks were identified in the schools in both communities.
All those who were diagnosed in the outbreaks were found to be infected with the “Delta variant.”
In addition, unvaccinated travelers over age 14 and those arriving from “high risk” countries will be required to enter self-isolation at home, effective immediately, according to a report by Israel’s Channel 12 News, and will be required to wear an electronic bracelet to monitor compliance with quarantine.
Those who refuse to accept the electronic bracelet will be required to enter a coronavirus hotel for the duration of the mandated quarantine.
Here’s why: around 33 percent of those who have tested positive for the Delta variant after international travel were also found to be fully vaccinated. This now raises the question of which vaccine really fights the Delta variant — if any.
Israel’s Health Ministry is determined to play it safe.