Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement that the ban, pending governmentapproval, would last 14 days. Officials hope that within that period there will be moreinformation on how effective COVID-19 vaccines are against Omicron, which was first detected inSouth Africa and has been dubbed a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization. The Shin Bet counter-terrorism agency’s phone-tracking technology will be used to locatecarriers of the new variant in order to curb its transmission to others, Bennett said. Israel has so far confirmed one case of Omicron, with seven suspected cases. Israel has recorded 1.3million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 8,000 fatalities since the pandemic began.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer November 28, 2021 11:45 UTC