Israel to issue post-vaccination “green passport” allowing citizens into public areas
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Israel will be the first country to give its citizens a “green passport” — a card or mobile phone app that will allow them to enter public spaces like restaurants, shopping centers, and airplanes – once they have received the COVID-19 vaccination, All Israel News reports.
Announcing the fast-track implementation of the “passport” on Tuesday, Israel’s health minister Yuli Edelstein said in a statement that it will “free people from isolation” and “allow [people] to enter places that will still be restricted to other populations.” The passport will be issued after the person gets the second of the two-dose vaccine.
Polls have shown that from 50-70 percent of Israelis have said they do not want to receive a vaccine. However, All Israel News said, earlier reports stated that anyone without the passport would be prohibited from entering certain public areas unless they test negative for COVID-19 within a specific time frame.
Addressing the Knesset Coronavirus Committee in November about the prospect of forcing people to be inoculated, the Sheba Medical Center Chief Medical Officer and Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Eyal Zimlichman said: “I agree, you can’t force the population; it won’t work. What is possible is to create motivation. Whoever is vaccinated will automatically receive ‘green status.’ Therefore, you may vaccinate, and receive Green Status to go freely in all the green zones: They’ll open for you cultural events, they’ll open to you the shopping malls, hotels, and restaurants.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been aggressively promoting the vaccine with daily briefings on the news about it.
Netanyahu himself is set to be vaccinated on Saturday night and he wants the country to begin vaccinations next week. According to All Israel News, this could result in some 2 million Israelis being vaccinated by the end of January.
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