Tel Aviv: Israel will lift the travel ban on 55 countries, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
The move, subject to the approval of the cabinet and a parliamentary committee, will take effect on Thursday, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying.
Most African countries will be released from the ban list, as well as some European countries, including Germany, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Ireland, Belgium, Finland and Norway, it added.
However, Mexico will be added to the list and labelled “red”, joining the United Arab Emirates, the US, Ethiopia, the UK, South Africa, Hungary, Tanzania, Nigeria, Spain, Portugal, France, Canada, Switzerland and Turkey.
Israelis returning from the banned countries, including the vaccinated and recovered ones, must enter quarantine for at least seven days.
Israel reports nearly 3,000 new COVID-19 cases
Israel has reported 2,952 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 1,369,417, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health.
The new daily figure on Tuesday is the highest registered in Israel since October 4, and significantly higher than 1,760 cases reported on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.
For comparison, during November, the Ministry has twice reported less that 200 new daily cases of infection.
The number of deaths from the virus remained unchanged at 8,242, while the number of active cases increased by 2,434 to 15,487.
Israel’s COVID-19 reproduction number indicator, also known as the R number, has risen to 1.47, up from 0.73 in early November.
When the R number is greater than one, the number of COVID-19 patients increases at an exponential rate and multiplies from time to time. When the R number is less than one, it indicates the spread of the pandemic has been curbed.