Ben Gurion airport
Ben Gurion airportAvshalom Sassoni/Flash90

Following the news of at least two new outbreaks of coronavirus in Israel in the last few weeks, it is now being reported that around 170 people confirmed to have coronavirus entered the country in the last month alone.

According to Kan Reshet Bet, around 100 of the 170 confirmed cases were people who had been vaccinated against Covid-19. 66 had not been vaccinated, and the remainder had immunity passes. The vast majority of the new arrivals entered Israel via Ben Gurion airport.

During the period in question around 239,000 people entered the country. Around 60% of them had been vaccinated, and around 25% had not. Most of the confirmed coronavirus cases came from Russia – 31 people – followed by the United Arab Emirates with 24 confirmed cases. 12 cases arrived from the United States, and 10 from France.

Speaking on Kan Reshet Bet this morning, the director-general of the Health Ministry, Prof. Hezi Levy, said: “We are using all the methods at our disposal to enforce regulations, including electronic means of enforcement, which may yet be used on a broad scale.”

Asked to comment on reports that the two recent outbreaks in Israel concerned the so-called Indian variant of the coronavirus, Levy said, “The Indian mutation is more contagious [than others seen in Israel so far]. We are also seeing it come up more in children. I am happy to say, however, that after a person receives both vaccine doses, the virus no longer has any resistance against the vaccine.”

The Health Ministry is now advising for all minors between the ages of 12 and 15 to be vaccinated against coronavirus, due to fears that the Indian variant may be spreading. This advice is being issued despite the fact that data from the United States related to a possible link between myocarditis and the coronavirus vaccine in children has yet to be received. Two and a half million children (under the age of 18) have already received a coronavirus vaccine in the United States.

“In all likelihood, we will be calling for all children to be vaccinated, given the levels of contagion we are now seeing,” Levy said, “as we know that the vaccine works. In addition, we are reconsidering the matter of face masks in enclosed spaces, especially in places where many children are gathered, and particularly in areas where cases have already been detected among children.”

Pressed on whether the government should have been doing more to prevent the entry of coronavirus carriers into the country, Levy responded: “We have been saying the whole time that coronavirus is still around. One of the ways it enters the country is via people returning from abroad. This is a worrying situation but we are dealing with it. We are also looking at ways to regulate entry into the country, especially from countries with a high contagion rate, and people returning to Israel from such countries must quarantine themselves at home, regardless of whether or not they have been vaccinated.