According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister and Health Ministry, it says that the Israeli government on Friday decided to prohibit travel of Israeli citizens to seven countries over high Covid-19 morbidity and fear of the spread of variants of the virus.  The seven are Ukraine, Ethiopia, Brazil, South Africa, India, Mexico and Turkey, the Xinhua news agency reported. The ban will take effect on Monday, and will last at least 13 days, the statement said.

The decision follows a ministry's warning against travel to the seven destinations, reflecting both the current situation and the morbidity levels according to several criteria such as the countries' declarations, the percentage of vaccination and recovery, and evidence of variants.

The ban does not include non-Israelis who live in these countries permanently, nor does it apply to stays at airports of these countries for connecting flights. On Friday, Israel reported 87 new Covid-19 cases, raising the total number in the country to 838,481.

Meanwhile, reports from England says that coronavirus reproduction number, also known as the R number, has risen slightly to between 0.8 and 1.1, up from between 0.8 and one last week, according to the British government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). This means that on average, every 10 people infected will infect between eight and 11 other people. When the figure is above one, an outbreak can grow exponentially.

About 66,200 people in Britain tested positive for coronavirus in the week to April 24, down from 105,000 people the previous week, Britain's Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Friday.

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