Israel to allow unvaccinated foreign nationals admission to country from March 1
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz have determined that the Coronavirus situation in Israel has improved enough that the country can now ease travel restrictions and reopen to foreign tourism.
Israeli passengers at a full United Airlines flight from Newark US airport to Ben Gurion airport in Israel, among them hundreds of young travellers who were stuck in South America due to the Coronavirus restrictions. Newark US, Mar 19, 2020. Photo by Sara Yahimovich/TPS
This was decided during a discussion held on Sunday with Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov and leaders from the relevant government bodies.
Naftali Bennett said that Israel is seeing a steady decline in the rate of Covid morbidity and so “this is the time to gradually open what we were the first in the world to close.”
“Our indicators must be in sync with the situation on the ground; what we are telling the public must be in sync with what is expected of it,” said Bennett who is concerned with keeping the public’s trust and ensuring that Israelis honour all of the government’s directives and decisions regarding the Covid pandemic. As such, he declared, “we must open up as the situation improves – and it is improving significantly.”
“At the moment, the situation in Israel is good,” he added, taking credit for this. Bennett praised his administration’s handling of the crisis, saying that the current positive situation is the result of “correct and dynamic management; therefore, we are now opening up.”
“At the same time, we will continue to closely monitor the situation and in the event of a new variant, we will again act quickly,” he added.
The new Covid policies will take effect on Tuesday, 1 March 2022 and are as follows:
Foreign Tourists of all ages will be permitted to enter Israel, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, subject to undergoing two PCR tests (prior to departure and after landing in Israel).
Israeli nationals will no longer be required to take a Covid test before boarding a plane for their return trip to Israel. Israeli citizens will only be required to undergo a PCR test upon arriving in Israel.
Unvaccinated Israelis will no longer be required to quarantine subject to the negative results from the PCR test at Ben-Gurion International Airport.
