This country was a pioneer: thanks to a drop in contamination with the Omicron variant, Israel will see its health pass disappear. “We are ending the use of the green passport [passe sanitaire en Israël]the Omicron wave has been curbed, there is now a sharp drop in the number of seriously ill and infected people »Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said after a meeting with public health officials.
At the height of the wave caused by the Omicron variant, at the end of January, Israel had recorded a local record of contaminations with peaks at more than 80,000 cases per day for this country of 9.3 million inhabitants. But over the past two weeks, that number has gradually declined to about 21,000 cases on Thursday, according to health ministry data.
The Israeli government was one of the first countries to set up a health pass a year ago, shortly after the launch of a vast vaccination campaign, in order to fight against the pandemic linked to Covid-19. At the beginning of February, the government had announced that it was canceling the obligation to have a pass to frequent cafes, restaurants, bars, sports halls or hotels, but had maintained it for other places, such as concert halls or cinemas.
Three doses of vaccine for more than half of Israelis
The Israeli government must also decide in the coming days on the abandonment of the requirement of a PCR test, in order to enter the country, currently open to foreign travelers, specified the Prime Minister.
Earlier this week, thousands of Israelis converged on Jerusalem in cars or trucks from several cities across the country to demonstrate against pandemic-related health restrictions, mimicking convoys that appeared in Canada and swarmed to several countries. This convoy, which was destined for the Parliament in Jerusalem, caused major traffic jams on Monday in a concert of horns, noted journalists from Agence France-Presse.
Israel had also acted as a pioneer with the launch of a vast vaccination campaign in December 2020, thanks to an agreement with the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Today, almost half the population has received three doses of the vaccine, which, according to health authorities, helped limit the number of hospitalizations at the height of the wave due to the Omicron variant.
Mr. Bennett has also repeated in recent weeks that he wants to fight the virus, in particular by encouraging vaccination, but without ” to block “ the country’s economy, which had contracted in the early months of the pandemic. Over the past year, in 2021, Israel’s economy has rebounded to see its gross domestic product grow by 8.1 percent, its strongest gain since 2000, the National Institute of Statistics said on Wednesday.
