Minister calls for civilian COVID tracking app
The Tourism Minister who voted along with the Cabinet to close the skies to foreigners said Israel should have a COVID tracking app for civilians.
“Shame on us that we have not yet developed a civilian application,” Yoel Razvozov said. “Why should the Shin Bet (Israel's domestic intelligence agency) be activated - as if it has nothing to do but locate people with coronavirus.”
“We cannot call ourselves the Start-Up Nation when we run the [Shin Bet] tracker,” he said referring to controversial phone tracking that Israel has used several times during the pandemic to locate positive COVID cases.
After the discover of the Omicron variant, Israel closed up – again – to foreigners in late November despite only reopening to vaccinated tourists only at the beginning of the month. Many people were forced to cancel their trips with no idea of when to rebook.
The closure was initially set in place for two weeks and discussions will likely take place this week as to whether to extend it.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
