Omicron on the agenda for top officials
Participating in the call were Australia's chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly and head of the Department of International Relations at Israel's Ministry of Health, Dr Asher Salmon.
AUSTRALIAN and Israeli health officials met online on Monday (pictured) to share their knowledge and discuss how to tackle the Omicron strain of COVID-19.
It comes as Australia temporarily closed its borders to eight African nations and Israel took the step of barring all non-citizens from entering the country for at least two weeks due to concerns about the spread of the new variant.
Participating in the call were Australia’s chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly and head of the Department of International Relations at Israel’s Ministry of Health, Dr Asher Salmon.
Israeli Embassy deputy chief of mission Ron Gerstenfeld told The AJN there has been an ongoing dialogue between the officials on “an ad hoc basis”.
“They saw that we have closed our border very fast and they want to know exactly how and why and what’s the next step we’re going to take,” he said. “Israel is taking the lead – in rollout of the vaccine, in rollout of the boosters – and they look at us for some sort of a reference for their next step … they do respect our opinion, as we respect the Australian opinion as well.”
Gerstenfeld envisaged another meeting will happen in the next few weeks, depending on what happens with Omicron.
“In the meanwhile, whatever information that we can share we’re sending by WhatsApp or by email, and vice versa.”
As of Tuesday Australia had recorded six cases of the new strain, which was first identified in South Africa late last month.
The new variant “has several mutations that may have an impact on how it behaves” according to the World Health Organisation, however it is not yet known how transmissible it is or whether it causes more serious disease.
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