Leaders recommend reopening Israel to vaccinated tourists

Israeli leaders on Thursday recommended reopening the country to vaccinated tourists in a move that could revitalize its tourism industry.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett along with the tourism and health ministries developed the plan, which will need to be approved by the cabinet, Reuters reported.

The plan is to reopen Israel on Nov. 1 to foreign tourists who got fully vaccinated in the last six months, recently got a booster shot or were infected with the virus in the past six months and got one dose of the vaccine.

The vaccines that will be recognized are Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sinovac and Sinopharm. The Russian-made Sputnik V is not on the list of approved vaccines, The Associated Press reported.

People from countries that are considered “red” due to high coronavirus outbreaks won’t be allowed to travel to Israel. 

Israel’s borders have mostly been closed to tourists since March 2020, with a plan to reopen this summer hindered by the delta variant. 

In 2019, Israel saw a record number of visitors to the country, adding $7.2 billion to the economy, according to Reuters. 

It is unclear if those traveling to the country after it reopens will have to be tested for the virus or undergo quarantine.