Israel will put the UK, Denmark and Belgium on the list of “red” countries from Wednesday, Dr Sharon Alroy-Preis, the head of public health services, told a news conference with Health Minister Nitzen Horowitz on Sunday evening.

These changes come in the light of an increase in the number of COVID infections in European countries, said Ms Alroy-Preis.

Israelis will not be able to travel to these countries, while returnees will have to follow a seven-day quarantine, even if they have received three anti-Covid vaccines.

Foreigners from countries on this red list will not be able to return to Israel, Sharon Alroy-Press said.

In late November, all African countries were placed on this red list after the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus was discovered in South Africa.

Two weeks ago, Israel, after reopening on 1 November, decided to close its borders to foreign tourists to prevent the spread of the new variant.

For its part, the United Kingdom is in a “deeply worrying situation”, with more than 58,000 new Covid-19 contamination recorded on Friday, unheard of since January, Housing Minister Michael Gove said after a crisis meeting.

The number of Omicron-type cases in England “is doubling every two or three days, and probably even faster in Scotland,” he said.