JERUSALEM - Israel on Sunday decided to ban travel to Britain and Denmark to prevent the spread of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron.

The ban, to be effective on Thursday, was announced at a press conference by Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of the public health services at the Israeli health ministry.

Israel has already banned travel to most African countries, which are labelled "red" by the Israeli ministry because of the new coronavirus variant.

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.

So far, 67 cases of Omicron have been detected in Israel, while the testing results of another 80 suspected ones have not yet been obtained, according to the ministry.