Israel Considers Scrapping ‘Green Pass’ Vaccination System Amid Omicron

JERUSALEM, Israel – A panel of Israeli Health Ministry advisors on Sunday recommended scrapping the country’s Green Pass system because Omicron’s high transmission rate among vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals alike has rendered the certificate largely irrelevant.

The Green Pass is Israel’s proof of vaccination and it allows citizens to enter many indoor venues and large gatherings if they are vaccinated against COVID-19, recovered from the virus in the last six months, or tested negative in the last 72 hours. It was launched in February 2021 to reopen Israel’s economy and keep infection rates low.

But now that Omicron is spreading throughout Israel regardless of vaccination status, the panel of experts believes the Green Pass is no longer a reliable tool to prevent new infections and provides a false sense of security to vaccinated individuals. Instead, the panel said a negative test is a better measure against transmission and suggested requiring such tests at certain indoor events. The experts also proposed keeping the Green Pass in place and demanding that citizens present negative antigen tests to enter areas where high-risk populations live, like nursing homes.

“Guidelines should be formulated for institutions and organizations where at-risk populations are located in order to reduce their exposure to the virus. In general, a requirement from visitors to these institutions to present a Green Pass and a negative COVID-19 test should be maintained,” the panel said.

Health experts also predicted that the quality of care for serious COVID patients will “worsen due to medical centers’ inability to handle” high caseloads.

Israeli leaders are under pressure to announce a decision soon because the Green Pass system is set to expire in eight days.

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Story by Emily Jones for CBN News