The Health Ministry is considering shelving "Green Pass" protocols that prohibit the unvaccinated or unrecovered from COVID-19 from entering many public places.
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On Saturday night, the government's expert advisory committee on the pandemic met and following a discussion on the matter decided to recommend to the government that the Green Pass restrictions, as they are currently stipulated, not be renewed when they expire next week.
The potential move comes as more experts are saying the Green Pass is becoming obsolete with the rampant spread of the Omicron variant that has changed the way governments are approaching the pandemic.
According to one report, some of the experts believe that booster shots are sufficiently preventative against serious illness, but with the Omicron variant, vaccines are insufficiently protective against infection.
Hence, according to the experts on the panel, the Green Pass system should be preserved and incorporated into a system that includes negative antigen tests such as those being used in schools. The practical meaning of this is that people who are not vaccinated may gain entrance to public venues via a display of a negative virus test.
Additionally, the expert committee recommended several measures to enable at-risk groups to protect themselves, such as allowing them to utilize their sick leave to remain home from work in the next few weeks as the virus wave peaks, without needing a doctor's note in order to receive compensation and allowing children to stay home from school likewise without medical authorization.
A decision must be made in eight days when the current rules expire.
Health Ministry officials are debating three options: canceling it entirely, extending the Green Pass but with less restrictions, or converting it to the "Purple Pass," which places a cap on the number of people allowed to gather at one time in certain locations.
The preferred route, according to the Hebrew language Walla! News portal, is to keep the Green Pass on a "low flame" with the infrastructure in place in case the tougher restrictions need to be quickly reinstituted.
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The Green Pass digital certificate currently applies to those who have been vaccinated, have recovered in the last six months, or have received a negative test result in the past 72 hours.
The World Health Organization said on Sunday that it is "plausible" that the rapid spread of the Omicron strain is leading Europe toward the end of the pandemic and into an endemic phase where COVID-19 becomes more of a predictable and manageable illness, such as seasonal influenza.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
