Israel to lift UK, S. Africa travel bans, turn others orange

The system is set to change on August 16, but inbound passengers from the US and other countries will be required to enter isolation already starting from Wednesday.

Israelis at Ben-Gurion Airport as coronavirus cases increase, August 5, 2021. (photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/ MAARIV)
Israelis at Ben-Gurion Airport as coronavirus cases increase, August 5, 2021.
(photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/ MAARIV)

Great Britain, South Africa, Russia, and several other countries are set to be taken off the list of nations considered at the highest risk for coronavirus infection from August 16, after the coronavirus cabinet met on the issue late Sunday night. The meeting did not affect last week decision that inbound travelers from the US, France, Greece and many more will be required to fully isolate upon their return starting from Wednesday.

Israelis are not allowed to travel to high risk countries – also referred as "red" - without special permission from a devoted government commission. Those who return have to isolate for a minimum of seven days even if they are vaccinated or recovered. At the moment the list includes Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Cyprus, Georgia, Great Britain, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Russia, Spain, South Africa, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

The new list of banned countries is set to feature only Bulgaria, Brazil, Georgia, Mexico, Spain and Turkey.

To travel to one of these places, Israelis must fill out a form online and receive special permission from the Exceptions Committee. The form can be found here.

At the same time, from next Monday all countries in the world except a selected group will be placed under severe travel warning – or turn orange.

Contrary to what happens with red countries, Israelis are free to travel to such nations, but they are required to enter isolation when they return regardless of their immunization status.

From August 15, only Hong Kong, Hungary, Taiwan, Moldova, New Zealand, China, Singapore and the Czech Republic will be considered "yellow countries," which do not require full quarantine.

Vaccinated or recovered individuals returning from yellow countries are only required to take a PCR swab test on return to the country and wait in quarantine until a negative test result is received or 24 hours have passed, whichever comes first.

Unvaccinated people always have to be isolated when entering Israel, regardless of where they traveled.

The list of countries and their statuses are updated periodically by the Health Ministry in accordance with morbidity data. An up-to-date list appears on the Health Ministry website.


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The new list of countries will go into effect on August 16 following approval of the new criteria created by the ministry by the relevant Knesset committee.

From that moment, all countries which are not explicitly mentioned as red or yellow will be considered orange.

The current list of countries already under a severe travel warning – or colored orange – includes Cambodia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Liberia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Namibia, Panama, Paraguay, Seychelles, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

As decided last week, several new countries will be added already on Wednesday (Botswana, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czech Republic, Egypt, Eswatini, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Malawi, Netherlands, Rwanda, Tanzania, Tunisia, Ukraine and the United States).

Speaking to the Knesset Law and Constitution Committee, Public Health Services head Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis said that the specific new lists of countries published by the ministry also still need to be approved by the coronavirus cabinet.

“The idea of the new model is to identify countries that are at very great risk to us, based on whether they have variants that we do not want to enter Israel, how much traffic comes from them, and what the variants' entry into Israel is expected to be,” she also said.

“The model weighs all of these factors and creates a score,” she added. “The list was reduced from 14 countries to six countries and if approved, it will come before you next week. The goal is how to reduce travel to the minimum necessary and identify safer countries.”