In Israel, which confirmed one case of the variant and has seven suspected cases, officials decided Saturday to bar foreign travelers from all countries and mandate quarantine for all Israelis arriving from abroad. The ban is expected to last for 14 days, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement.
The Bennett’s office also said Israel’s internal security agency, also known as Shin Bet, will activate cell phone monitoring in order to track and locate verified cases of the new variant.
The technology has been used on and off since the beginning of the pandemic, matching virus carriers’ locations against other mobile phones nearby to determine with whom they had come into contact. Earlier this year, Israel’s Supreme Court banned the government from sweeping use of mobile phone tracking of coronavirus carriers amid privacy concerns from civil rights groups.
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