In Israel, omicron drives confusing policy amid 4th jab

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has tried to clarify constantly shifting pandemic policies that have confused many Israelis

TEL AVIV, Israel -- Israel opened to tourists for the first time in nearly two years. After just a month, it slammed shut. On Sunday, as the omicron variant sets infection records, the country will once again crack open — but only to travelers from certain countries.

Even in relatively small, wealthy Israel, an early global leader against the coronavirus pandemic, the omicron variant is outpacing the government's ability to make and execute clear pandemic public policy. What once was a straightforward regimen of vaccines, testing, contact tracing and distancing for the nation of 9.4 million has splintered into a zigzag of rules that seem to change every few days.

The whiplash here, on everything from tourism to testing, quarantines, masks and school policy, offers a glimpse of the pandemic puzzle facing governments worldwide as the omicron variant burns through the population. Someday, the World Heath Organization will declare the pandemic over. But in the meantime, leaders are weighing how much illness, isolation and death people are willing to risk.

In Israel as elsewhere, what's clear is that the ultra-contagious omicron variant has pushed the fight against COVID-19 into a messier phase of rules governed by a key assumption: Large portions of the public will contract the omicron version, which is more contagious but appears to cause less severe illness and death, especially among vaccinated people. But vaccinated people are catching the variant too, driving a surge fed in part by gatherings over the winter holidays.