Monday: Israel will be opened to inbound tourism - vaccinated and recovering will be able to enter

Israel will be officially opened to inbound tourism with a new outline formulated by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Tourism, under which vaccinated and recovering tourists will be able to enter Israel. This is the first time the state has allowed single tourists to officially enter Israel since the start of the Corona crisis. At the same time, a new corona test system will begin operating tomorrow at Ben Gurion Airport, with Pangia replacing Omega (Check to Play) with tests for departing tourists.

Today, tourists can enter Israel again. With the opening of the skies of Israel to inbound tourism, and after a long period of disconnection between Diaspora Jewry and Israel, a group of tourists arrived this morning on behalf of MOMentum.
Our correspondent notes that the largest group that has arrived since the outbreak of the crisis, some 230 Jewish mothers from the United States and Canada, have embarked on a journey to various points in the State of Israel.
The campaign, conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Diaspora, to strengthen the connection to the State of Israel and their Jewish identity. The largest campaign since the outbreak of the crisis will be attended by women, most of whom will visit Israel for the first time in their lives.

The new tourist entry plan states that foreigners who have been vaccinated twice will be able to enter Israel if 180-14 days have passed since they received the vaccine. Also, those who are vaccinated with a third vaccine will be able to enter Israel starting 14 days after being vaccinated.
All those interested in entering Israel will be forced to perform a PCR test about 72 hours before entering the country, another test after landing and entering solitary confinement for 24 hours or until a negative result is obtained from the test.
For recoverers, they will have to perform a NAAT test (similar to PCR), before entering the country, a PCR test like any other tourist, and the presentation of an official certificate proving that they have indeed recovered from Corona. Foreigners have improved the guidelines or improved isolation are likely to face sanctions such as deportation from the country and a three-year ban on entry.
Israel fully recognizes the vaccines of Pfizer, Moderna, Astraznica, Sinobac and SinoPharm. As of November 15, foreigners vaccinated with the Russian Sputnik vaccine will also be able to enter Israel in the same way, but will also be required to undergo a serological examination. Foreigners vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be able to enter Israel after being vaccinated with only one vaccine and 180-14 days have passed since they received the vaccine.
Although the outline will not officially take effect until tomorrow, about 2,600 French tourists will enter today and the outline will already apply to them.
It should be noted that the movement of foreigners to Israel never stopped and even in the months when the sky was "closed" there was some movement of people entering and leaving Ben Gurion Airport. In recent months tens of thousands of foreigners entered the country, most of them Group tourists to Israel, with several hundred entering through the Ministry of Tourism's group tourism route and thousands more through the Taglit project.
According to data from the Population Authority, the month in which the fewest foreigners entered Israel since the outbreak of the crisis was April 2020, when only about 1,764 foreigners entered Israel. From that point on, the number of foreigners entering Israel is on the rise, and as of August 2020, their number has not decreased by 10,000 per month. In recent months, their number has increased significantly, with about 60,000 foreigners entering Israel this month. However, the numbers never returned to pre-Corona volumes that stood at hundreds of thousands of foreign arrivals each month.
Tomorrow, a new set of Corona tests will begin at Ben Gurion Airport, with Pengia replacing Omega (Check to Play) with tests for departing tourists. Shekel, the results of which will be received within 4 hours. You can also use private tests offered by various entities, such as Super-Pharm, BE, the AID GENOMICS company, and the array of laboratories that Omega recently opened in Azrieli.
Tourism Minister Yoel Rezbozov: "This is not the end line of the struggle, but only the starting line. From now on we can go the long way to return all the tourists, because the tourism workers must be given back their livelihoods."