Countries all over the world are slowly opening up, easing their coronavirus lockdowns, deciding which nations to let in, which nations to restrict, and which nations to ban entirely. Amid those countries comes Montenegro, which recently announced that it is removing Israel from the list of nations whose tourists are permitted to enter, reports Israel Hayom.
The decision, made out of concern for Israel’s recent rise in coronavirus cases, is based on parameters that the government of Montenegro established to decide which nation’s tourists it will allow in and which to keep out in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Montenegro had declared itself virus free on May 25, after the country hadn’t seen a new case since May 5, however on June 15 it reported its first case in weeks. The isolated case was a tourist who arrived from the neighboring Bosnia.
To date, Montenegro has reported 325 confirmed cases and nine deaths. In comparison, Israel, with a population of nearly 9 million, has had just over 19,000 cases and 300 deaths at the time of writing. The country currently has just over 3,400 active cases, showing an active spike in morbidity rates.
According to Montenegro’s parameters, if the rate of Israel’s confirmed coronavirus cases dropped below 25 cases per 100,000 citizens, which averages out at approximately 2,250 cases or fewer, Israelis will be allowed to fly to Montenegro once again. Israel is currently about 1,000 active cases over that number.
Montenegro isn’t the only country which made recent changes regarding Israeli tourists. On May 22, Cyprus gave the green light for Israeli tourists to enter the small island country after June 9. At the time of the announcement, Israelis had to take a coronavirus test to enter between June 9 and June 19.
However, on June 11, Cyprus retracted its statement, changing Israel’s health category from A to B, now requiring Israelis to receive a negative coronavirus test result prior to entering the country.
Reuters contributed to this report.