ISRAEL, ARMENIA: Israel has started conducting a national drill to test the country’s readiness for a possible outbreak of a new and more lethal coronavirus variant.
The “Omega Drill”, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, consists of three sessions that simulate the passage of time after a potential outbreak, reports Xinhua news agency.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the drill aims to test the capabilities of the government offices, national emergency, and health systems to respond to the emergence of an “Omega” Covid variant.
The office noted that no such variant has yet been discovered in Israel.
The exercise is being run by the National Management Center in Jerusalem, designed for the management of nationwide crises, with the participation of general directors of government ministries; representatives of professional health and emergency agencies; the national coronavirus project manager; the director of the Public Health Service; chairpersons of Parliament’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee; the National Security Council; and the Israeli army.
“Israel needs to be prepared,” Bennett said at a situation assessment meeting at the National Management Centre.
Meanwhile, Armenia has announced its declaration to extend the nationwide Covid-19 quarantine to June 20, 2022, due to the current pandemic situation.
The quarantine regime, introduced in early 2020 to replace the state of emergency, allows the government to continue enforcing coercive measures such as social distancing, mask-wearing, and other anti-epidemic preventative rules, reports Xinhua news agency.
In the last 24 hours, Armenia reported 1,482 new COVID-19 cases, taking the overall infection tally to 325,521, according to the country’s ministry of healthcare.
According to the country’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the country has so far administered a total of 954,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and 300,000 people have been fully inoculated.- IANS
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