Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Tuesday that all Israelis and medical staff over the age of 60 would be entitled to a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, after consultation with a panel of experts.

The statements come at a time when Israel is struggling to contain the spread of the Omicron version of the coronavirus, without limiting itself by easing travel restrictions and other restrictions.

“I immediately ordered the preparation of the fourth vaccine,” Bennett wrote on Twitter. “The world will follow in our footsteps”.

A spokesman said Israel was the first country in the world to administer a fourth dose.

The prime minister had earlier said that the decision of the panel of experts to approve the fourth dose is “excellent news”, which will “help us get through the Omicron wave.”

“The citizens of Israel were the first in the world to receive the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and we remain at the forefront with the fourth dose,” he said in a press release broadcast by his services, calling on those who Meet these criteria to “get vaccinated”.

Immunized people may also receive a fourth dose, which can be given to people over 60 years of age and medical teams, at least four months after the third injection, the health ministry said in a statement.

Bennett spoke after a cabinet meeting dedicated to Omicron.

The council banned food in shopping malls and ordered that children from communities with high morbidity rates and low vaccinations should attend classes at home.

Mr Bennett’s office said the prime minister had ordered the Department of Health and Medical Funding, which deals with immunizations, to prepare for a fourth-dose injection campaign.

Earlier today, Israel announced that it has added the United States, Canada and several other countries to its red list of some 50 states where it has been banned from travel in an effort to contain Omicron.

These restrictions on foreign travel, which have already affected France, the United Kingdom and most African countries, will take effect on Wednesday and remain in force for other “red” countries until at least December 29.

The other countries added to the red list on Tuesday are Belgium, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.

These measures concern, especially in the case of the United States, the hundreds of thousands of Israelis with dual nationality.

Israeli citizens and residents in a newly relisted country will have to self-confine themselves for a week upon their return.

The prime minister recently defended these restrictions, calling for the population to telework and vaccinate children, according to him, to avoid having to resort to new confinement in the face of this fifth pandemic wave.

According to the health ministry, as of Tuesday, there were 1,148 confirmed and “very likely” cases of Omicron in Israel, with more than half of those vaccinated.

Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba (south) announced that a 60-year-old man suffering from “multiple” “severe” deformities had succumbed to Omicron, arguably the first person in Israel to lose his life as a result of this type.

More than 4.1 of Israel’s 9.3 million people have received three doses of the coronavirus vaccine. Currently, children in the age group of 5 to 11 years are being vaccinated.