Israel empowered health officials to quarantine anyone deemed to have been exposed to an especially infectious variant of Covid-19 even if they were previously vaccinated against or recovered from the disease with presumed immunity.

The decision followed a warning by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett over new outbreaks caused by the Delta variant, with daily infections rising after weeks of low plateau credited to Israel's mass vaccination campaign. Reuters reported.

Under the updated health ministry directives, vaccinated or formerly infected people can be ordered to self-isolate for up to 14 days if authorities believe they may have been in “close contact with a carrier of a dangerous virus variant”.