TEL AVIV: Israel further shortened its mandatory quarantine period from 12 to 10 days, a Health Ministry statement said on Sunday. The ministry had already shortened the period for which anyone who has been in contact with a coronavirus patient must self-isolate from14 to 12 days on November 1. The new regulation will take effect on Tuesday at 0600 GMT.
Israelis who have had contact with people who tested positive will themselves have to take a coronavirus test on the first day of their10-day quarantine, as well as on the ninth day, and both tests must be negative in order for them to leave isolation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier on Sunday said Israel would likely start inoculating its first citizens — health workers as well the premier himself — within days, sooner than the earlier announced start date of December 27.
The first shipments of some 8 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine bought by Israel arrived in the country on Wednesday.
Israel, a country of 9.2 million inhabitants, has been gradually lifting a second nationwide lockdown imposed in late September. But infections have since been rising again, prompting Netanyahu to warn of an imminent third lockdown. Its total COVID-19 death toll now nears 3,000. — dpa
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