The Ministry of Health is promoting a plan that would see the requirement of an additional COVID-19 test for returnees from abroad, three or four days after their arrival in Israel - in addition to a test that will be performed at the airport upon landing, Kan 11 News reported on Wednesday.
The additional test, if and when it is carried out, will come at the expense of the passenger.
According to the report, the plan is being promoted in the Ministry of Health due to the fear of the virus coming into Israel from other countries in the world, while the morbidity in Israel is low.
The recent outbreak of COVID-19 among Chinese workers in the Jordan Valley is an example of an importation of the virus that worries the Ministry of Health, precisely due to the fact that the workers tested negative for COVID-19 in the test they underwent at Ben Gurion Airport.
Eight workers who were in China imported the virus into Israel and have so far infected 170 other workers. The Ministry of Health fears that this is a new sub-variant, but the results of the genetic sequencing performed for the workers' tests will only be received this weekend.