TEL AVIV – Anyone entering Israel from any other country will be required to self-quarantine effective immediately, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu said Monday evening.
“After a day of complex discussions, we have made a decision: Whoever arrives in Israel from abroad will enter quarantine for 14 days,” the prime minister said following a coronavirus-related meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office.
“This is a difficult decision but it is essential to maintaining public health, which takes precedence over everything. This decision will be in effect for two weeks. At the same time, we will make decisions to safeguard the Israeli economy,” he added.
The meeting included heads of all affected ministries, including Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, Economy and Industry Minister Eli Cohen, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich among others.
51 Israelis have been confirmed to have contracted the virus, mostly by overseas travelers.
The self-quarantine order applies to both Israelis and foreign nationals. Non-citizens will need to be able to prove that they have a place they can self-isolate before being allowed entry into the country.
Tourists who are currently in Israel will be granted a few days to organize flights back home.
In the meantime, the Health Ministry has set out some guidelines while they remain in the country, including calling MDA immediately if they feel any symptoms, taking extra care to ensure personal hygiene is maintained, avoiding crowds as much as possible, documenting their entire stay in Israel and understanding and accepting that they are barred from returning to Israel after visiting neighboring countries.
“We know that the economic impact is dramatic, but health comes above all else,” the Health Ministry’s director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov said.
He added that the dramatic measures were necessary lest the country end up like Italy, whose health system and economy are buckling as a result of the rapid spread of the virus there.
Two Israeli charter airlines, Arkia and Israir, said Monday that they will cease all international flights until further notice.
“This is a death blow. Israeli aviation will be no more — not Arkia, not El Al, not Israir,” Avi Nakash, an Arkia owner, told Channel 12 news.
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