MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Israel warns against travel to Argentina as cases of covid-19 keep soaring

If Argentina is added to the red list, Israelis will be required to seek clearance from an Exception Commission before being allowed to travel.

The Government of Israeli Sunday issued a “serious warning” regarding its citizens travelling to Argentina, where cases of covid-19 are on the rise.

Israel's Health Ministry released a document after a meeting in Jerusalem titled “Seychelles Islands, Argentina and Russia defined as countries with a serious travel warning.”

It is believed that such a report in the previous step to adding that destination to the infamous red list of destinations its nationals are strongly advised against visiting.

Should that happen, Israel would join the United States, whose government has already included Argentina among the no-go nations which are 80% of the countries in the world.

“If they do not reflect a substantial improvement in contagion levels, it is to be expected that they will enter the list of countries with the highest risk index. The public is instructed to prepare accordingly,“ the Israeli document warned.

If Argentina is in fact added to the list, Israeli travellers should then seek clearance from a so-called Exception Commission before being allowed to travel. Such a decision, even if on sanitary grounds, might further spark antisemitism which is already on the rise.

Israel has already placed Ukraine, Ethiopia, Brazil, India, South Africa, Mexico and Turkey among high-risk countries.

At the same time, Israel intends to lift most of the restrictions still in force in the country after the successful vaccination campaign with which a ”herd immunity“ was virtually achieved. In the last 24 hours, only 24 cases of coronavirus were reported.

The objective is to lift as of June 1, most of the sanitary restrictions implemented to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health reported. ”For the first time since the outbreak of the epidemic, all restrictions inside Israeli territory will be lifted as of June 1,“ the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Since the start of the pandemic, Israel has recorded more than 839,319 coronavirus infections and 6404 deaths from the disease. But as the number of cases continues to drop, restaurants, bars and gyms have been reopening, albeit only for holders of the so-called ”green passport,” a document which proved whether a person has been either vaccinated or recovered from covid-19.