Chaim V’Chessed: This afternoon, government officials announced that 18 more countries will be added to the list of ‘High Risk’ countries. This means that all travelers returning from these countries, including vaccinated or recovered persons will be required to observe quarantine. Quarantine is 14 days, but can be shortened to 7 days.
These new rules will take effect at midnight on August 6 (between Thursday and Friday). Chaim V’Chessed advises those vacationing in these countries to depart from those locales before this time to avoid quarantine. The new ruling means that American students arriving next week, for the new school year, will be required to observe quarantine upon arrival.
This also means that travelers from the USA will not be able to visit Israel for less than seven days, as they will not be permitted to leave the country while in mandatory quarantine. Serological tests are not accepted as grounds for quarantine exemption for travelers coming from High Risk countries.
The new countries are:
The United States, Botswana, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czech Republic, Egypt, Eswatini, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Malawi, Netherlands, Rwanda, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Ukraine.
(At the same time, the following countries will be removed from the ‘High Risk’ list: Seychelles, Zambia, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Uganda, Liberia, Panama and Kenya.)
It is time for US to lock out all visitors from Israel. If Israelis cannot come to US, maybe we will all get to visit Israel one of these days. 18 months is enough lockdowns and quarantine by Israel.
We are in Galus!! Yidden can not even visit Eretz Yisrael!!
The effective date has been changed to August 11.
@Sruli the US have been doing this to people in Europe for over 18 months. Friends of mine haven’t been able to go to their children’s chasunas in the USA without stopping in Mexico or similar for 2+ weeks
I’m sure it can cause some people to have to change the plans, but we know that life is much more of a priority so kol hakovid and we emulate your ways in taking all the necessary precautions in the u.s. too!
I suppose quarantining is a necessity. I remember when the teacher would make us sit in the corner, or kick us out of the classroom; it felt like like a quarantine, but they didn’t call it a “quarantine” back then. Lucky for us, the teacher didn’t carry any vaccines on him, otherwise he would have used that instead of his ruler, which would have prompted a student uprising from the anti needle crowd.