One in a hundred Israelis who visited Dubai in the last month have brought coronavirus back with them, according to Health Ministry figures – 343 Israelis in total.
According to data from the Israel Airports Authority, around 35,000 Israelis have visited Dubai since the Abraham Accords were signed several months ago with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, mostly as tourists, and mostly in the last month, Behadrey Haredim reports.
Speaking during a debate in the Knesset’s constitutional committee on Wednesday, head of Public Health Services, Dr. Sharon Alray-Price, noted that Israel is currently seeing a doubling of cases every few weeks, and that an airplane carrying Israeli tourists back from Dubai is “under investigation” after 14 people on board tested positive for Covid-19.
She added that “data show that three percent of those entering the country test positive for coronavirus, and this has immense significance. It’s also important to note that even those people who are supposedly negative when they enter the country may yet test positive shortly after their arrival. Indeed, when we adjust the figures [for those entering the country] we find that the positivity rate is actually around six percent.
“We need to reduce the number of positive cases entering the country,” she concluded.
Nonetheless, just last week, a short-lived plan to force all those entering the country, including citizens, to be quarantined in “coronavirus hotels” was shelved, due to widespread opposition. Furthermore, coronavirus testing at the airport is not even compulsory. Instead, people entering the country are required to self-isolate at a location of their choosing, for either 14 days, or for 10 days if they return two negative Covid-19 tests.
Meanwhile, other countries both in the region and beyond have imposed far stricter controls on those entering their borders, Globes reports, and some countries now require presentation of a negative coronavirus test even before passengers board incoming flights.
Turkey, for instance, has announced that until March 1, everyone landing in the country will have to present a negative test result. In the Netherlands, everyone over the age of 13 landing in the country – including Dutch citizens – must present a negative test result obtained within 72 hours of the flight. Greece is another country that now demands a negative test result for all those entering the country, and many countries have either banned arrivals from the UK, where a new mutation of Covid-19 is spreading, or require isolation for those entering. However, given that the mutation has now been detected in many parts of the world, regulations are likely to be updated in the near future.
Israel, so proud of its success in swiftly vaccinating huge numbers of citizens, seems to be lagging behind in this area, and continues to allow the virus to enter the country. According to Globes, even if all arrivals were bused straight to “coronavirus hotels,” the supply of rooms would not be able to meet the demand, as there are only around 3,000 rooms available, far fewer than the number of people entering the country.