Beginning on Friday, inbound travelers who fall under a new definition of vaccinated will be exempt from full quarantine, the Health Ministry announced Sunday. However, the fate of individuals vaccinated abroad is still in limbo.
According to the new criteria, all travelers who received their third shot at least a week prior, have had their second shot or recovered within the last six months, or have received one dose of the vaccine after recovering will just need to isolate until they get the results of the PCR test taken upon arrival, meaning a maximum of 24 hours.
The only exception is for people who enter Israel from countries labeled as “red” – Brazil, Bulgaria, Mexico and Turkey. They are still required to self-isolate regardless of their immunization status.
Israel does not recognize vaccination or recovery certificates from other countries, and its borders are largely closed to foreign nationals, who can enter only under very specific circumstances and if they receive special permission. Among those who can receive such permission are first-degree relatives of citizens or permanent residents.
However, both Israelis and foreigners vaccinated abroad who do arrive here have the option of undergoing a serological test through a facility recognized by the Health Ministry to prove the presence of coronavirus antibodies in their blood.
Recently, FEMI, the company operating the airport testing stations where all passengers are required to take a PCR test upon arrival, has started to offer the option of a rapid serological test, which costs NIS 126 and gives results in 20 minutes.
Once the results are transmitted to the Health Ministry, the travelers are given an Israeli recovery certificate with the date of their test and a Green Pass.
Whether these documents can also be considered grounds to exempt them from isolation, like all other recovery certificates less than six months old, is not clear.
Nothing in the official guidelines suggests the opposite. According to the ministry’s hotline, which is available to all citizens and foreigners to answer questions about the coronavirus policies, including about quarantine for people who have been abroad, the recovery certificates provided to those who undergo a serological test are equivalent to all other recovery certificates and will grant exemption from isolation in the same way, starting on Friday.
However, according to former MK Dov Lipman, who has worked for months helping immigrants and their relatives abroad to enter Israel and recently established the Yad L’Olim organization, health officials have said the new policies exempting travelers do not apply to people vaccinated abroad, and they are still required to quarantine for a minimum of seven days. The Health Ministry will make a decision about the issue in the coming days, he said.
The Health Ministry had not provided answers to The Jerusalem Post’s inquiries on the subject as of press time.