Israel's vaccine passport system is known as the "green pass." Residents need to show their green passes to be able to enter most public venues in the country. People who have been vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19 or have received a negative privately funded PCR COVID-19 test result within several days are eligible for green passes.
The Israeli government recently announced expiration dates for green pass holders. Beginning on Oct. 1, the green pass will only remain effective for six months after a person receives his or her second dose. The same rule applies to people who have recovered from COVID-19.
But the catch is that Israelis can extend this deadline for themselves if they receive a third or booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Before this announcement, the green pass was set to expire at the end of the year regardless of a person's supposed immunity to COVID-19.
Green pass provides special privileges to the vaccinated
In line with the announcement regarding the green passes, the Israeli government expanded the availability of its controversial COVID-19 vaccine booster doses to all fully vaccinated residents 12 years old and above.
This marked the fourth time this month that Israel expanded who in the country is eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccine booster doses.
"The third complementary vaccine works," claimed Prime Minister Naftali Bennett without evidence. "Two million Israelis have already been vaccinated [with a third dose]."
Bennett added that Israelis should feel privileged to receive a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine because "this is a privilege that no other country has."
The prime minister has been one of the country's leading proponents of providing people with booster COVID-19 vaccine doses. Earlier in August, he claimed that elderly people who do not receive an additional vaccine dose are in "mortal danger."
Critics of Israel's green pass vaccine passport system have accused the government of depriving Israeli citizens of their rights if they do not receive COVID-19 vaccine booster doses every six months. The critics argue that this is creating a "perpetual cycle of jabs."
This is because individuals with lapsed green passes will no longer be allowed to enter many public venues. Furthermore, people with proof that they have received booster doses have the privilege of dodging a week-long quarantine upon returning to Israel from overseas, so long as the country they traveled to is deemed to have a low to moderate risk of COVID-19.
Recipients of COVID-19 booster doses are also allowed to self-isolate for 24 hours or take a COVID-19 test to prove they are not infected. (Related: STUDY: Natural immunity 13 times more effective than vaccines at stopping "delta" variant.)
Israeli government officials are ignoring the fact that the country's post-vaccine delta variant outbreak is still getting worse despite the mass vaccination campaign and the country's status as one of the world's most vaccinated countries in the world.
Just this Monday, Aug. 30, Israel reported nearly 11,000 new COVID-19 cases. This brings the country's total active cases to about 83,000. About 35,000 of these active cases were found in schoolchildren, who were most likely infected by their fully vaccinated parents.
An additional 55,000 school-aged children have not tested positive for COVID-19 but are in isolation because they were exposed to people with verified coronavirus cases.
Despite these numbers, Israel's mass vaccination campaign is still proceeding as planned. The country now administers around 100,000 COVID-19 doses per day. More than 2.15 million people have already received COVID-19 booster doses.
As of Aug. 30, 62.4 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. Another 5.6 percent of the population is partially vaccinated.
Learn more about Israel's post-vaccine COVID-19 outbreak by reading the latest articles at Vaccines.news.
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