Digital Desk, Tel Aviv. Israel’s Ministry of Health announced its decision to ban travel to seven more countries to prevent the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

The ban will take effect from December 20 and will include the United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Finland, France and Sweden, which will be labeled as red zone countries, Xinhua news agency quoted the ministry as saying. The list of red zone countries already includes most of the African countries.

All Israelis returning from banned countries must enter a quarantine for at least seven days. Foreign nationals are not allowed to travel to Israel from these countries except on humanitarian matters with the approval of a special government committee.

(IANS)