Israel closes its borders due to the variant of the coronavirus, which reaches Australia
The state of New York, in the United States, has declared a state of emergency as an exceptional measure before the appearance of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. The governor of the state, the democrat Kathy Hochul, has been one of the first officials in the country to make a decision about the new variant of the virus, as pointed out by the newspaper ‘The Hill’.
For his part, the main person in charge of the fight against the coronavirus in the country, Anthony Faucci, acknowledged this Saturday that he would not be “surprised” if the omicron variant was already on US soil. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was. We have not detected it yet, but when there is a virus with this level of transmissibility and there are already travel cases in Israel, Belgium and other countries … when there is such a virus, it is almost impossible that it does not spread everywhere », Fauci has stated in statements to the NBC network.
Many countries – including the United States – have vetoed the entry of international tourists from South Africa, where the new variant was first detected, and its southern neighbors on the African continent. US President Joe Biden himself called this decision a “precautionary measure” given the rapid advance of this variant, and invited the citizens of the country to get vaccinated. “We need more Americans of all age groups to receive this life-saving protection,” he said.
In addition, Hochul is appealing to the population to wear a mask, get vaccinated and receive booster doses.
Israel closes its borders by omicron, which reaches Australia
Meanwhile, the new variant of the coronavirus, which continues to spread across the planet, was detected in Australia and its presence pushed Israel to close its borders to foreign citizens.
With more than five million deaths worldwide since the pandemic was declared in 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) considered the new omicron variant, detected this week, as “worrying.” Identified in South Africa on Thursday, many countries reacted by closing their borders with southern African nations.
Israel, where a case of a traveler from Malawi was confirmed, decided to prohibit the entry of foreigners into the country as of Sunday, as well as to force its vaccinated citizens back in the country to carry out a PCR test and three days of quarantine (seven in the case of the unvaccinated). This decision comes less than a month after the country had reopened its borders (on November 1), and eight days before the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
In Australia, authorities announced on Sunday the detection of the omicron strain in two vaccinated passengers returning from southern Africa, who had arrived in Sydney on the same day that this country’s borders with nine countries in southern Africa were closed. Twelve passengers on the same flight are in quarantine.
Australia had recently lifted the ban on its vaccinated citizens to travel abroad without authorization and plans to open its borders between now and the end of the year to qualified workers and international students, who have not been able to access the island-continent for 18 months.
Beyond South Africa, Israel and Australia, the omicron variant was also detected in Botswana, Hong Kong and several European countries (Holland, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic). Kuwait and Qatar (an important air hub) were the last countries on Sunday to announce restrictions on nine and five African countries, respectively.
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