Israel is conducting the world’s first national COVID-19 drill to test the country’s readiness for an outbreak of a new and lethal variant of the virus.
The drill, scheduled for November 11, will take the format of a war games exercise and will be led by the prime minister, Naftali Bennett.
It will test the capabilities of government departments and national agencies to respond to the emergence of an “Omega” variant of Covid-19.
A statement from the Israeli government press office said no such variant had yet been discovered in the country.
Israel had beaten a fourth wave of Covid and “we are on our way toward exiting the Delta variant”, Bennett said. However, he added, the battle against the virus continued. “We are continuing to hold drills and to challenge ourselves … We must continue to closely monitor the situation and prepare for any scenario.”
The exercise will be run by Israel’s civil defence minister at the National Management Centre in Jerusalem, which handles national crises, The Guardian reported.
