Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned on Wednesday that Israelis must heed the official guidelines in order to prevent a resurgence of coronavirus, triggering a blame game with Likud over the former government's handling of the pandemic.
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"The vaccines are doing a great job and without them, there would be a lot of cases of severe illness and deaths, but they are not enough in and of themselves against this strain," he said. "Masks are the most effective protection against this," he said.
Bennett lamented that "up until several weeks ago, Israelis could go to the reddest of countries," implicitly blaming the previous government for not taking swift action to prevent Israelis from visiting highly infected destinations, effectively making the Ben Gurion International Airport a virus hotspot and an entry point for the Delta variant, which he said "began to spread in Israel in late May."
Bennett warned that sooner or later the Delta variant will make virtually all countries would be added to the list of places that Israelis are discouraged from visiting and could be fined if they do so. "Don't buy airline tickets, they will be canceled anyway," he said.
The Likud hit back at the prime minister, issuing the following statement: "Bennett convened a press conference just so he could announce that he had no announcements to make, even as the coronavirus has been rearing its head under his watch. No false excuse can explain away his inaction that led to the virus' return to Israel, just after he was handed over a country from [former prime minister] Netanyahu that was in better shape than every other nation. Perhaps it would be best if he once again read the small booklet that he wrote about the virus when he called for the reopening of the economy at the height of the pandemic."
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