One of Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s staff members was diagnosed on Wednesday with the Coronavirus (COVID-19), after three days of quarantine and two negative tests.
Gantz recently returned with his team from the US.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense stated that as a precautionary measure and after consultation with the Ministry of Health, Gantz will continue in his mandatory quarantine until the virus sequencing testing is received.
“It should be emphasized that the team member did not sit near the minister during the flight and did not test positive at Ben Gurion Airport when returning or in a test before the departure from the US to Israel, “the minister’s office said.
Israeli media reported that the team member tested positive for the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
However, Gantz was at the Knesset Plenum on Wednesday to participate in the voting. He sat in the visitors’ section with PM Naftali Bennett, who was also in quarantine, away from the rest of the Members of Knesset.
רה”מ בנט ושהב”ט גנץ נכנסו ליציע המבודדים בכנסת. לקואליציה יש רוב סוף סוף ומתחילים להריץ כאן הצבעות pic.twitter.com/vuXgF9znuk
— יובל שגב | Yuval Segev (@Segev_Yuval)
The Ministry of Health updated Tuesday that it had identified 22 new verified cases of the Omicron variant in Israel, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 89, while another 239 “high suspicion” cases are under investigation.