The Health Ministry on Wednesday advised Israelis to reconsider all foreign travel amid the global spread of the new coronavirus that was first reported in China.
Expanding its precautionary steps, the ministry said it was also now urging the public "to reconsider the necessity of flights abroad in general, beyond the required isolation upon return from specific countries."
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The ministry also ordered people to avoid travel to Italy and said anyone returning from there would be required to enter home quarantine for 14 days. That rule will take effect on Sunday.
Israel has already canceled all flights to and from China and mandated 14 days of home quarantine for travelers returning from Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Thailand and South Korea.
The ministry also urged people to avoid international conferences, whether in Israel or abroad.
"People should avoid traveling to conferences, conventions or other international gatherings, including events of a religious nature where people from many countries congregate. Additionally, people should avoid international conferences in Israel," the ministry said.
"The assessment is that there is a high probability the disease has already spread to other regions of Europe and many other places in the world," it added.
Israel has reported two infections of the coronavirus, which causes a potentially fatal illness known as COVID-19. Both were passengers who were flown home and immediately placed in isolation after being on a cruise ship that was quarantined in Japan.
The outbreak has infected more than 80,000 people globally and killed more than 2,700.
At this stage, the ministry was still undecided whether to bar Italian nationals from entering Israel, although one senior health official said it was safe to assume this would happen.
Italy on Wednesday sought to rally international support for its virus containment efforts even as its caseload reached 447, people linked to Italy fell ill across Europe and as far away as Brazil, and the UN's health agency urged a scaled-up response.
Twelve people infected with the virus have died in Italy since Friday, all of them elderly, having other health conditions or both, civil protection chief Angelo Borelli said.
The Italian government has defended its handling of the public health emergency while acknowledging the inability to pinpoint the origins of two clusters in the northern Lombardy and Veneto regions, as well as growing alarm as cases increase.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia on Thursday halted travel to the holiest sites in Islam over fears about a viral epidemic just months ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage, a move that came as the Mideast has over 220 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.
The extraordinary decision by Saudi Arabia stops foreigners from reaching the holy city of Mecca and the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure the world's 1.8 billion Muslims pray toward five times a day. The decision also affected travel to the prophet Muhammad's mosque in Medina. Authorities also suspended entry to the kingdom to those with tourist visas from nations affected by the new virus.
The epicenter in the Mideast's most-affected country, Iran, appears to be in the holy Shiite city of Qom, where the faithful in reverence reach out to kiss and touch a famous shrine. Iran now has the highest death toll from the virus outside of China, the epicenter of the outbreak.
There have been no confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in Saudi Arabia amid the outbreak.
