Israeli cabinet approves expansion of red list states to include US

Jerusalem: Nine other countries added to travel ban effective midnight Tuesday amid omicron spread

Israel's cabinet on Monday morning added the United States and Canada, along with eight other countries, to the travel ban list amid the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant of Covid.

The move comes after the Health Ministry's recommendation on Sunday to expand the number of "red" countries, designated as places of elevated risk for the transmission of the disease. 

In addition to the US and Canada, the newly added countries include Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland, and Turkey.

The red list will be updated from midnight Tuesday to Wednesday, pending final approval from the parliament's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.

Travel is banned to red countries for Israeli citizens as well as permanent residents, and foreigners from these countries are not allowed to enter Israel.

However, the Jewish state already reimposed a blanket travel ban soon after the omicron variant was detected in South Africa.

Special permission may be requested with Israel's Exceptions Committee.

According to the latest Health Ministry data, Israel on Sunday registered 1,004 new Covid cases with a positive test rate of 1.09 percent out of 106,388 total tests administered.

Patients listed in serious condition remained steady at 81, with 42 of these patients on ventilators.

The spread of the virus is increasing in Israel according to the R-value, which stands at 1.22 — a number above one indicates that the number of cases is growing.

As of Monday, the total number of omicron cases in Israel stood at 175.