Israel has become the first country to totally shut down all its borders to foreigners, after the Omicron Covid-variant crisis began.
It was followed in short order by Morocco and Japan – all three countries have sealed their borders.
The universal shut-downs have gone ahead regardless of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) call for borders to remain open. The WHO has said that as the variant had already been detected in many countries, closing borders had limited effect.
The WHO said it stood with African nations and added that travel restrictions may have a role in “slightly” reducing the spread of COVID-19 but place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods, and if restrictions are to be placed, they should be scientifically based and not intrusive.
In Israel, the entry of all foreign nationals to Israel was prohibited with effect from last night, Sunday November 28, with the only exceptions cases approved by the exceptions committee. The ban is to last 14 days. The government of Israel has said the Finance and Tourism Ministries will formulate ways to assist the tourism sector accordingly.
An official government statement said: “Israelis who return from countries defined as red (like South Africa and its neighbours) will undergo a PCR test upon landing in Israel after which they will enter quarantine in a designated hotel until the results are received. Upon receiving a negative result, they will transfer to home quarantine and on the seventh day will undergo an additional PCR test. Upon receiving a negative result to the second test, they will be released from quarantine.”
Morocco, whose economy relies heavily on tourism, will stop allowing all incoming airliners into the country for two weeks from midnight tonight. A government committee on Covid said the situation would be monitored and adjusted during that time if it deemed it necessary.
Morocco had already rushed to announce a ban on entry to travellers from Southern African states, including South Africa, last Friday, November 26, and it had already made the decision to suspend all flights to and from France (which has the largest Moroccan expatriate community) due to the current European surge in infections.
Just a few weeks after easing its formerly strict entry rules, Japan says it will now bar the entry of all foreign visitors from every country in the world, following the emergence of the variant. The ban will begin on Tuesday, November 30, said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a press conference.
This was after having tightened up on entry restrictions for Southern African traffic entering Japan, putting entrants under a 10-day quarantine in government-supervised facilities.
About 76,5% of the population of Japan is believed to be immunised.
Meanwhile, Australia said on Monday that it would delay by two weeks its plan to reopen its borders to international students, skilled migrants and travelers from Japan and South Korea. The country said it would use the delay, to Dec. 15, to study whether the Omicron variant is more dangerous than the Delta variant, which raced across the world earlier this year.
