Israel warns of 'emergency' after detecting new virus strain
Jerusalem, Nov 26: Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Friday that Israel is "on the threshold of an emergency situation after authorities detected the country's first case of a new coronavirus variant in a traveller who returned from Malawi.
The Health Ministry said the traveller and two other suspected cases, all of whom had been vaccinated, were placed in isolation.
A new coronavirus variant has been detected in South Africa that scientists say is a concern because of its high number of mutations and rapid spread among young people in Gauteng, the country's most populous province.
At a Cabinet meeting convened Friday to discuss the new variant, Bennett said it is more contagious and spreads more rapidly than the delta variant. He said authorities were still gathering information on whether it evades vaccines or is deadlier.
We are currently at the threshold of an emergency situation, he said. "I ask everyone to be prepared and to fully join in the work around the clock.
Late Thursday, Israel declared South Africa and six other African nations to be red countries from which foreign nationals are barred from traveling to Israel. Israelis are prohibited from visiting those countries and those returning from them must undergo a period of isolation.
Israel launched one of the world's first and most successful vaccination campaigns late last year, and nearly half the population has received a booster shot. Israel recently expanded the campaign to include children as young as 5.
But the country only recently managed to contain a wave of infections driven by the highly contagious delta variant.
Israel, with a population of more than 9 million, has reported at least 8,182 deaths since the start of the pandemic. It currently has more than 7,000 active cases, including 120 who are seriously ill, according to the Health Ministry.
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BJP won't cross 50-mark in Bengal polls, says TMC in response to Shah's 'two-thirds majority' claim
Kolkata (PTI): The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing him of peddling falsehoods and making baseless claims about securing a two-thirds majority in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.
Senior TMC leader and state education minister Bratya Basu told reporters that Shah's remarks were based on hollow assertions and claimed that the BJP would not even cross the 50-seat mark in the polls.
"Shah will keep coming and going like a tourist. Such visits will serve no purpose," Basu said on the sidelines of a programme.
"The BJP will not even cross the 50-mark in the assembly polls and suffer a humiliating defeat," Basu claimed.
Addressing a press conference here, Shah claimed that the BJP would form the next government in the state with a "two-thirds majority in 2026".
"We will not only identify infiltrators, but we'll also drive them out. Bengal will have a new BJP government after April 15, 2026, as people have made up their minds," he said.
Shah also took a dig at the Trinamool Congress government on the issue of women's safety.
"It has been officially stated that women should not step out of their homes after 7 pm. What era are we living in? Are we living in the Mughal period?," he said.
"Mamata ji, this is a free India. Ensuring that women can step out safely whenever they choose is a constitutional right. Your government has failed to provide this basic security," he added.
Criticising Shah over his comments on women's safety in the state, senior TMC leader and minister Sashi Panja urged the Union home minister to visit Bengal during the festive season, like Durga Puja and Christmas, when thousands of women move about freely and participate in festivities.
"In case a stray incident happens, our administration takes prompt action to bring the culprits to book. Instead, the rapists of Bilkis Bano are garlanded by your party activists. Your party shields Kuldeep Sengar and Brij Bhusan, who were accused of committing atrocities. Amitji should not lecture on women's security," she said.
Panja accused Shah and his party at the Centre of coming in the way of the passage of the Aparajita Bill, which would have ensured exemplary punishment to rapists after conviction.
On Shah's claims about the industrial decline of Bengal, Panja said since 2011, investment of Rs 13.8 lakh-crore came to the state.
"Bengal occupies the second berth in the MSME sector as per the figures available with the Centre, and he is peddling falsehood about the industrial growth of Bengal," she said.
TMC spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar also dismissed Shah's assertion that the BJP does not engage in temple-based polarising politics.
"Everyone knows the BJP campaigned on temple-masjid politics in both the 2019 and 2024 elections. This brand of politics will again be rejected by the people of Bengal," Majumdar said.
