Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett Tests Positive For Covid

Topline

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has examined optimistic for Covid-19 and is working from house, his workplace introduced on Monday, a improvement that comes a day after he met U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of a landmark assembly between Israeli and Arab diplomats.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and US Secretary of state Antony Blinken deal with the media … [+] following their assembly in Jerusalem.

POOL/AFP by way of Getty Photos

Key Details

According to a statement launched by the Prime Minister’s Workplace, Bennett is “feeling nicely” and plans to proceed together with his deliberate work schedule from his house.

The assertion famous that Bennett will “maintain a state of affairs evaluation” on the killing of two law enforcement officials within the metropolis of Hadera on Sunday by a person claiming to belong to the Islamic State terror group.

Bennett was seen sporting a face masks on Sunday throughout his go to to Hadera, the place he was briefed by native police, however each he and Blinken had been maskless throughout their assembly earlier within the day.

The 50-year-old prime minister has received three vaccine doses.

Tangent

After reporting round 100,000 instances a day in January amid an omicron-driven surge, Covid-19 instances in Israel have since seen a pointy decline. Nonetheless, over the previous week, instances have begun creeping up as soon as once more fueled by the BA.2 omicron subvariant. Israel is now reporting a seven-day common of round 13,000 new infections every single day. In January, consultants on the Israeli Well being Ministry backed a fourth Covid vaccine dose for folks over the age of 18.

What To Watch For

Blinken is anticipated to attend a key summit in Negev, the place the Israeli international minister Yair Lapid will host his counterparts from the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain and Egypt. The summit in Negev takes place towards the backdrop of ongoing efforts by Washington to revive a nuclear cope with Iran—a transfer that’s opposed by Israel and a number of other Arab states. On the flipside, the U.S. and its European allies have additionally expressed some disquiet over the Center Japanese nations’ reluctance to hitch their concerted effort to push again towards Moscow following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.