The U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) raised concerns on Monday, July 26, about the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, lifting its travel health notice to “Level 3: High.”
In June, the CDC had lowered its travel advisory rating for Israel to “Level 1: Low.” The “Level 3” rating says travelers to Israel should be fully vaccinated and that unvaccinated travelers should avoid nonessential travel to Israel. “Level 3” is one level below the CDC’s most severe travel rating.
A notice on the CDC website said: “Because of the current situation in Israel, all travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.”
The CDC update came as a White House official said the United States will keep existing COVID-19 travel restrictions on international travel in place for now, due to concerns about the surging infection rate because of the Delta variant.
This news raises concerns for parents preparing to send their children to Israel for the upcoming school year. No decisions have been made yet regarding how the school year may be impacted by rising case numbers.
Israel’s coronavirus cases have continued to rise, data from Israel’s Health Ministry showed on Monday, with 1,404 cases diagnosed on Sunday and more than 1,500 cases diagnosed on Monday, the highest daily caseload since mid-March.
Some 121 Israelis are now hospitalized in serious condition, of whom 25 are currently intubated. The positivity rate has continued to rise and now stands at 2.17%, the highest positivity rate since March.
The overall death toll from the coronavirus in Israel now stands at 6,461.
Israel has also been limiting the entrance of people from certain countries in an effort to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus and prevent new mutations from entering the country.
Due to rising rates of the coronavirus in Spain and Kyrgyzstan, the two countries were added to the list of countries that Israelis are now no longer allowed to visit until further notice, the Knesset’s Constitutional Committee approved on Monday. In doing so, they join a list that already includes the countries of Uzbekistan, Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, South Africa, India, Mexico and Russia.
By Jerusalem Post Staff and combined sources
