The Indian strain of Corona virus was found in five students from different schools in Israel

The Indian strain of Corona virus was found in five students from different schools in Israel. This is according to data from the Ministry of Health's situation assessment report distributed this morning (Thursday). The schools where this variety was located are: Dekel Vilnai and the field plant in Ma'ale Adumim, paths in Pardes Hanna, Keshet in Ashdod and Yosef in Holon.
To date, the Ministry of Health's national genomic flooring system has identified 41 cases of Indian variant, of which 24 are from abroad (21 foreigners) and 17 cases in the community, some of which have no connection to those returning from abroad.
Of the verified, four are vaccinated and the rest are not vaccinated. Among the verified are five children from different schools in Israel and the Ministry of Health promotes with the Home Front Command extensive sampling in the schools involved.
There is still no clear information regarding the Indian variant and its implications for vaccinated and recovering. However the developers of the Pfizer vaccine have estimated that it is also effective against the Indian strain.
The Ministry of Health also announced that in the past week, through the national genomic flooring system, 8 people have been infected in the South African variant, 7 in New York, 2 in California, 1 in a new British strain and one in a variant from St. Petersburg, Russia. The ministry recommends that Israelis, including those vaccinated and recovering, avoid unnecessary trips abroad.
The Ministry of Health has recommended a series of measures to curb the import of disease into Israel, and in particular the penetration of the Indian strain, but so far they have not yet been approved by the government due to political difficulties. Among other things, the ministry recommends banning travel to seven countries with particularly high morbidity rates: India, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa.
The ministry also recommended that all returning Israelis from these countries be required to be isolated, even if they were vaccinated or recovered. It was also recommended that foreigners from these countries be banned from entering completely.
The criteria according to which countries will be determined as high risk will be based on the work of the information and knowledge center formulated regarding the travel warnings, which include reference to the presence of suspicious variants in the country and the rate and number of patients returning from these countries to Israel.
At this time, these countries include the seven published in the travel warning: India, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Ethiopia, Ukraine and Turkey.
The countries will be updated once every two weeks, similar to the education traffic light and the definition of the green and red countries. In the case of a country where there is an exceptional increase in the criteria, it will be possible to announce it within two weeks.
Regarding the inbound tourism policy, the Ministry of Health recommends postponing the inbound tourism pilot for a month, until the end of June, in light of the prevalent morbidity in the world and the discovery of the new variants.
"In order to keep morbidity low and allow the economy to continue easing as early as next week, the Ministry of Health seeks to bring to the government's approval today the strategy for a stricter policy within the country, and a broad opening inside. Variants from the outside, "the Ministry of Health said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the issue at the beginning of the cabinet meeting on Sunday and said that "to ensure the achievements in the field of corona, we are considering stopping entry from countries that have variants. We will make decisions in the near future." Netanyahu added that "one of the countries in which the epidemic is spreading cruelly is our friend India. We are ready to help in any need."