Coronavirus: Officials may close airport to prevent coronavirus mutation



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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will present a proposal to the government on Sunday to ban the entry and exit of all foreign and Israeli passengers from Ben-Gurion Airport amid fears of a growing number of coronavirus mutations.

Netanyahu and a group of senior ministers and health officials met on Saturday evening to discuss the matter and determined that the number of people allowed in and out of the country would be drastically reduced. Anyone wishing to enter or leave Israel will need special permission.

If approved by the government, the restrictions will apply to passenger flights for 14 days.

The discussion came after reports over the weekend showed the UK variant could be deadlier than initially thought.

British officials have said the COVID-19 variant identified in England last month may carry a higher risk of causing death, although data is limited. So far, health officials have said there is no evidence that it is more deadly or causes more serious illness.

Meanwhile, Israel’s health ministry said it had discovered through genetic sequencing that six out of seven pregnant women screened for the UK mutation were infected with it. The ministry was awaiting results for three other women.

“Practically in our daily life it doesn’t mean anything,” Cyrille Cohen, head of the immunotherapy laboratory at Bar-Ilan University told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday evening, noting that Israel is already on lockdown. , wearing masks and social distancing – and that the UK variant is already in the country, so closing the airport would have no effect on that.

Additionally, he noted that most studies show Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to be effective against the mutation.

However, he said fears about the South African mutation are greater, as some preliminary studies have shown it may resist the antibodies developed by the Pfizer vaccine. Several cases of the South African variant have been introduced to Israel via the United Arab Emirates.

In addition, mutations have been discovered in recent weeks in Brazil, the United States and other countries, and little is known about them yet.

“It would be desirable that we shut down, or at least limit as much as possible air traffic,” he told the Post. “We rely on vaccines.”

The health ministry has pushed for tighter screening at the airport during most of the pandemic. Over the weekend, the head of public health, Prof Sharon Alroy-Preis, said that “the important point is that we realize that we cannot continue to let in variants that cause infection. .

The fear, which Cohen alluded to, is that the variants could run counter to the country’s immunization schedule and hamper its ability to emerge from the crisis – a sentiment shared in a report released by Coronavirus National Information on Saturday. and Knowledge Center.

The report says that even with genetic sequencing capable of detecting when a patient is infected with a variant, not all countries around the world are able to track mutations as they develop. Moreover, even countries that can identify variants do not know how to quickly assess the danger.

“The case of the British variant proved that despite Israel’s rapid response after learning of its existence, it was too late to stop its spread among the population,” the report said.

As such, the center recommended that while traveling abroad, even people who have had the virus or who have been vaccinated be careful about wearing masks and social distancing. Additionally, he recommended avoiding unnecessary travel and treating arriving passengers who have been vaccinated and recovered like everyone else, requiring testing and even potentially a short period of isolation.

At midnight on Saturday evening, a government decision went into effect to require anyone entering the country to present a negative coronavirus test.

On Friday afternoon, the health ministry sent a note explaining that anyone wishing to board a flight to Israel would be required to present the air carrier with a negative PCR coronavirus test performed within 72 hours of the flight, or a certificate. vaccination. provided by the ministry.

In addition, anyone who leaves Israel before seven days have passed since receiving their second vaccine injection will have to enter isolation according to ministry guidelines upon their return, the ministry said.

The rules will apply to all inbound travelers, including those who have booked round-trip flights that prevent them from leaving the country for more than 72 hours.

Exceptions will be granted on a case-by-case basis.

Despite the mutation, the number of confirmed daily cases of coronavirus continues to decline.

There were 7,326 new cases on Friday, the Health Ministry reported on Saturday evening, 8.8% of those tested positive, which is a slight decrease from previous days. Some 8.9% of those screened Thursday were carriers of the virus, compared to 9% Wednesday and 9.2% before that.

However, the ministry reported that only 85,739 people had been tested for the coronavirus on Friday and 81,828 on Thursday, up from more than 100,000 the previous days which had resulted in 10,000 cases.

The highest infection rates remain among the ultra-Orthodox community, where British mutations and potentially others are active. Jerusalem had the highest number of active cases with 15,197, Bnei Brak 5,319 and Modi’in Illit 3,119.

The percentage of positive cases is expected to continue to decline, as the reproduction rate – the “R” or number of people infected by each patient – has finally fallen below 1 in all areas.

As the numbers decline, the hope is that the lockdown will be lifted as announced on January 31.

Coronavirus Commissioner Professor Nachman Ash said in an interview with Channel 12 on Thursday that he was optimistic that no further extensions of the shutdown would be necessary.

“The data is encouraging,” Ash said. “We hope the trend continues.”

There are currently 76,783 active cases of the coronavirus in Israel.



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