Jerusalem, Dec 19 (IANS): Israel's Ministry of Health on Sunday said it decided to ban travel to ten more countries to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The ban will take effect on Wednesday and will include the United States, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Canada, Switzerland and Turkey, which will be labeled as "red" countries, Xinhua news agency reported citing the ministry.

The list of "red" countries already includes most of the African countries, eight European countries and the United Arab Emirates.

All Israelis returning from the banned countries, including vaccinated and recovered ones, must enter quarantine for at least seven days.

Foreign nationals are not allowed to travel from these countries to Israel, except in humanitarian cases with the approval of a special governmental committee.

To date, the ministry has reported 134 cases of the Omicron variant, of which 86 are passengers who have recently returned from abroad.