Israel bans travel to Hungary

Besides other nine countries, Israel bans travel to Hungary from the 22nd of December due to high infection rates and rising Omicron cases. 

As a result of the rapid spread of the Omicron variant and the ever-increasing number of infections worldwide, Israel has introduced new travel restrictions. Visits by Israelis to South Africa and the vast majority of African countries have been already banned in early December. Not long after that, nine other countries – the UK, Denmark, France, Spain, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates were added to the “red” list, with travel bans already in effect from midnight on Sunday.

On Sunday, the Ministry of Health proposed that 10 more countries should be added to the high-risk areas from the 22nd of December due to their high infection rates. Accordingly, Israel bans travel to the following countries:

the United States, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey as well as Hungary.

The decision was made based on data examined by Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett who predicts a “significant outbreak” in Israel within three weeks. The peak of the wave is expected to exceed the fourth wave caused by the Delta variant which began in June. In addition to the recently annunced travel restrictions, the Prime Minister urged employers to re-introduce work-from-home arrangements as soon as possible.

On Sunday, the Ministry of Health announced that 40 more people had been identified as Omicron carrier. Following that, the number of Omicron infections has increased to 175 in Israel. The majority of the patients either got infected abroad or were in contact with people who transmitted the virus outside of the country. Meanwhile, 17 new carriers got infected in the local community. The only good news is that, so far, there has been only one seriously hospitalised Omicron patient in Israel, who happened to be a non-vaccinated person.