A new variant of coronavirus, which is said to be a combination of Omicron sub variants BA.1 and BA.2, has been detected in two passengers at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.
“This variant is still unknown around the world,” Israel’s ministry of health has said in a statement. “At this stage, we are not worried about it leading to serious cases,” said Israel’s Covid response head Salman Zarka.
More than four million people out of Israel’s population of 9.2 million have received three coronavirus vaccine shots. A total of almost 1.4 million cases of Covid infection, including 8,244 deaths, have been officially recorded in the country.
Last month, Israel announced that unvaccinated tourists would be allowed to enter as part of an easing of covid restrictions.
The country was seeing a “consistent decline in morbidity data,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said.
A previous effort to reopen the border last November foundered after just a few weeks because of the fast-spreading Omicron variant. Israel was one of the first countries to launch a national vaccination campaign in December 2020.
